We Met Two Years Ago
by Ben Firebird
Summary: The sequel to the story But We Just Meet, many of the pairings will remain the same, like Lacus/Kira and Cagalli/Athrun, but there will of course also be a few new once.
1. Chapter 1

This is the sequel to my first gundam seed story But We Just Meet, so if you haven't read that one yet I would suggest that you at least go over and take a small look at it.

Now then I might as well tell you this from the begining, but I'm not really a big fan of Shinn Asuka, truth be told I see him more as a villain then anything else.

I think the whole hero role lies more with Kira and Athrun.

Another thing if you are one of those people who read my first story, you would already know that Mayu is still alive. But seeing as none of us are really told all that much about her personality, I'll try my best to make a original and likeable character out of her, I hope I don't disappoint in that task.

One more small thing I think you guys should know about.

The piloting roster on both the Archangel and the Minerva are going to be a bit different, I will however not tell you what those changes are going to be yet. But I am pretty sure you will be able to figure it out after reading a bit.

Last thing I don't own anything gundam seed related.

We Met Two Years Ago

Chapter 1

It had been about two years since the first Bloody Valentine war had ended.

But even true peace had finally returned to the world, there was still some people that had chosen to joined the military, and some of them where at this very moment making their way back to Armory One, where the new Zaft ship Minerva was waiting for them.

Two of them laughing loudly at the third person that was walking just ahead of them.

"I can't believe that you where lucky enough to get a good feel of that blond girl we meet not long ago, she was a real looker!" Yolant said in a loud tone, just as Shinn send him a small angry glare.

But he really didn't do that for long before the green hair teen that was beside Yolant asked him a question that made his face almost completely red.

"Yeah she was cute, how big was she compare to Luna and Meyrin?" Nicol Amalfi asked doing his best not to show the others that he was just joking around, it was just so damn entertain messing around with Shinn like this he always got so angry.

Hearing Nicol ask him that, the Impulse pilot quickly turned around, with a truly angry look in both of his red eyes.

"SHUT THE HELL UP BOTH OF YOU, HOW THE HELL SHOULD I KNOW!!" he yelled out so loud that it could properly be heard through half of the colony.

Not that he cared if anybody did hear him, the only thing on his mind right now was getting those two morons to keep their mouths shut.

But even with all of his yelling Nicol and Yolant just kept laughing loudly at him, which made him glare at them a bit longer before he turned around and walked of with an angry frown on his face, not hearing what else his two friends had to say.

"Sometimes I actually wonder what goes through his mind. I can understand why he doesn't know about Meyrin with her uniform on, yet one look at Lunamaria in her space suit, should be more then enough for him to tell if she got a bigger rag, then that blonde girl he grabbed!" Nicol said in a thoughtful tone, while removing some of his long green hair from his eyes.

Yolant however just took a small look over at him before he nodded a single time in agreement, while thinking about how the red hair girl looked in her space suit, she truly did look hot in that thing.

Yet after just standing there for a few minutes, far away in his own thoughts, he slowly shook his head a single time before he turned his attention back over at the green hair pilot.

"We better hurry and get back to the Minerva, we really don't have much time left!" the mechanic said just before he took of again heading back to where the grey space ship was suppose to be.

Looking a bit after him Nicol hurried picked up his back pack and took of after his friend, that hadn't have the time to get that far away, so it didn't really take all that long before he caught up to him and together the two young men walked beside each other the rest of the way back to the Minerva.

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At the same time not that far away Gilbert Durandal was showing a certain blond Chief Representative and her blue hair bodyguard around Armory One, he kinda like the somewhat angry look that was on the girl's face.

It made it quite clear for him, that she did not like the sight of all of these different types of mobile suits, that was around them right now.

"Are all of those things really necessary when we are at peace?" Cagalli asked in a loud tone, while looking at a three ZAKUs that was standing a bit away from all the other mobile suits.

But as she was doing that she did not see the small smile that came over the man's lips, as he stood there watching the blond girl, she really did say some interesting things.

But after looking at her a bit more, he slowly turned his head and looked over at the ZAKUs, thinking his own thoughts about the mobile suits.

"I wouldn't really say they are necessary princess, but there will always be people in this world that wants conflict, and we all need to show such people that we have power, and that we are not afraid of them!" the man said while again looking over at the girl.

Hearing him say that Cagalli turned her attention away from the ZAKUs and back at him. "I can understand that, but having to much power could be seen by some people as a threat!" the blond girl said in a hard tone.

She seriously did not like being here, all of those damn weapons did make her feel a bit jumpy, it had after all not been all that long since she was fighting for her life against such machines.

Getting a somewhat thoughtful expression on his face, Gilbert smiled a bit at the girl. "Hmm you may be right about that princess, but even if we didn't have power, some people will see us as a threat no matter what, many people will always do that no matter who they are!" the man explained, while taking a brief glance over at the blue hair boy that did everything he could to stay near the girl.

For some reason, he couldn't help but find the young man a bit interesting, he seemed like one that had a great deal of potential, something Gilbert truly thought the boy was wasting in looking after this blond naive girl.

Feeling the man looking at him Athrun turned and looked away from Cagalli and over at the Chairman, where the man gave him a kind smile before he again began talking with Cagalli.

Blinking a few times in confusion, Athrun didn't understand why the man was suddenly smiling at him.

It was not like he had anything to do with what his girlfriend and the Chairman was talking about, he was only here to protect Cagalli, and he was determined to do that no matter what.

So while still thinking about that, he quietly took a small look around himself trying to see if there was anything nearby that could be a threat to any of them, but even with all the mobile suits around them, everything seemed pretty calm and down to earth right now.

And it wasn't long before they all began walking again, Cagalli and the Chairman still talking about what kind of influence having to many weapons could have.

But as the two of them where talking like that Athrun couldn't help but take a look up at one of the ZAKUs, even true he wasn't planing on piloting a mobile suit any time soon, a small part of him did find the new Zaft machine interesting.

It just seemed so much more powerful then the old GINN, and he really wonder how it would be using a mobile suit like that in combat.

It had after all been two years since he last tried something like that, not that he missed it one bit, he truly did prefer living a peaceful life then fighting every single day.

Yet as he was standing there in his own thoughts, Cagalli suddenly called out to him that he should hurry up, and that they didn't have time to wait while he was busy looking around.

Realizing that the person he was suppose to look after had gotten a bit away from him, he hurried rushed full speed over next to her, where he gave her a slightly guilty look.

"I'm sorry about that miss Athha, I was just looking at one of the mobile suit" Athrun explained, not really happy that he had been so easily distracted from what he was suppose to do.

Hearing him call her that Cagalli gave him a somewhat angry glare, she truly hated when he was talking to her in such a polite tone, she liked it much better when the people she cared about talked to her like she was a normal person.

Unfortunately this wasn't the best place to tell Athrun that, especially not when the Chairman was listening to everything they said.

"Just be sure to keep up Alex!" she said in a loud tone, thinking a few seconds about how strange it felt calling her boyfriend by that name.

It just seemed so unusual, she did however not think about that for long, before she again turned her attention back towards the man, that had been watching the two of them quietly for the last few minutes.

And when he realized that the girl was ready to continue their conversation.

It did not take long before the two of them, where once again far away in their discoursing about the Plants and all the weapons they had.

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At the same time in one of the hangars that was around them.

Three teenagers was following a man in a green Zaft uniform, none of them said a thing to each other, it was only when the man stopped and looked back at them that one of the two boys had something to say.

"So are they in there?" Sting asked in a serious tone, not once taking his eyes away from the Zaft soldier.

He however just nodded a single time, while smiling a bit at them.

"Yep all three of them are in there and ready to go, the only thing they are missing are somebody to pilot them, but before you ran of you better take a few weapons with you, I'm not really sure how tight the security is in there!" the man explained, as he opened up the suitcase he had carried with him in there.

Seeing all the nice weapons it did not take long before the three teens was fully armed and ready for combat.

"Good, you where are great help in getting us in here, and Neo did asked me to tell you that once we get back to earth, he will make sure that you get the rest of your money, but now you better hurry up and get out of here, we are going to start the party, at any minute now!" Sting said smiling a bit at the man, that had made sure that he and his two friends got all the way in here.

"Ok please tell Mr Roanoke that it was a pleasure doing business with him!" the man said just before he turned around and left the hangar, as quickly as possible.

Leaving the three teens to look after him.

Once he was gone Auel turned and looked back at his two friends, where he gave them both a somewhat angry look.

He really didn't like the man they had just talked with, he kinda want to put a nice little hole right through the mans forehead.

"We should have shoot him when we had the chance!" Auel said, while checking if the gun was loaded and ready to use, but seeing as the little black weapon was ready it didn't take long before he again was looking at his two friends.

Sting on the other hand just smiled a bit at him, before he began talking in a quiet tone.

"I get what you are saying Auel, I really didn't like that guy either, but you do remember that Neo told us to leave that guy alive, he said that it was a good way for someone else to take the blame for all of this!" the boy said, while he too took a small look at his own weapons.

Before he asked the boy and the girl in front of him if they where ready for this, but once he saw both of them nod slowly the three of them immediately left their hiding place and ran full speed towards what they had came all this way to get.

And not even a minute later the entire hangar was filled by the sounds of combat and people getting killed by the three Earth Forces pilots, that spare no one that got in their way, every person that tried to stop them where either shot or cut down.

"I can't believe that they don't have more security then this, it's almost like they are asking us to empty out this place!" Auel said while shooting down two Zaft soldiers that tried their best to stop them, not that they had much luck with that.

"Hmmm maybe they didn't expect anybody would take those machines at a place like this!" Sting said, while throwing a hand grenade in between four idiots that was hiding out behind a crate that was standing in the middle of the room.

But when the little thing land next to them, they tried to get away but was shoot down, by the very same person that had thrown the grenade in the first place.

While he was doing that Stella was jamming a very long scary looking combat knife in to the throat of a Zaft soldier, then quickly pulled it out and throw it straight at another enemy that was coming running full speed towards her.

Yet once the knife hit him in the chest he fell to the floor, blood slowly running out from the wound the blond girl had just given him.

Not that she cared much about that, she just throw her last knife down on the floor, and looked over at her two friends.

That had just finished taking out the rest of the Zaft soldiers in there. "Well then, now that there is no more party crashes, around here lets get to work!" Sting said in a loud tone, just as the two others gave a small nod to his words.

With that, they hurried turned around, and took of towards the three mobile suits, that was being stored at the back of the hangar.

And not ever a minute later, they where inside the machine powering them up.

"Everything looks fine over here, what about you guys?" Sting asked a bit worried that they had to leave one of the mobile suit behind if there was still something that needed to be done on it.

But it didn't take long before he realized that he really didn't have anything to be concerned about.

"This guy are ready to kick the ass of everybody getting in our way, just let me at them!" Auel said in a complete confident, he was already looking forward to show Zaft just how much damage he could do to them in one of their own mobile suits.

This was just going to be so great, he was going to make sure that they where gone regret not looking better after this nasty little machine.

But he did not get much time to think about everything he was going to do, when someone else began talking in a somewhat calm tone, that made him wonder just how Stella could stay so calm even under these circumstance.

"Mine is ready to so lets hurry up and get out of here, I don't really feel like staying in here much longer it's way to dark" the girl said while getting the Gaia gundam up on it's feet, where she immediately activated the Phase Shift armor.

While the two boys did the same, after that the three of them began heading slowly towards the exit of the hangar.

Once there Auel began chuckling softly inside the Abyss' cockpit. "Now then lets see if we can't liven things up a bit out there. I'm sure that a few of them doesn't have much to do right now, and are really just waiting for us to get all the fun and games started!" the blue hair teen said.

With a somewhat wicked smile on his face, just before he fired of all the gundams weapons in to the door blowing it completely apart.

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Meanwhile just outside Cagalli was just about to say something else to the Chairman.

When suddenly a giant explosion could be heard all over the base, which was more then enough for Athrun to throw himself forward and knock Cagalli to the ground, holding her tightly while a few piece of the now destroyed hangar door flew around them.

It was only when he heard some ask loudly what the hell was going on that he looked up again, where he immediately noticed two no three mobile suits coming out of the fire they them self had made when they blasted their way through the hangar door.

It was just about the same time that he heard a unknown soldier call out the names of the three mobile suits, and ask the one question that was most likely going thought every bodies mind right now.

"Chaos, Gaia, Abyss, what the heck are they doing?!" He asked loudly.

Just as the black one of the mobile suits transformed in to something that looked very much like a BuCUE and ran off full speed, shooting of the three beam weapons it now had in to another hangar where a few GINNs was being made ready to leave.

Yet none of the pilots in there even got the chance to try and stop the three gundams.

That was when another eksplosion caught his and Cagalli's attention.

And they both looked over at the blue mobile suit just as it pulled it's lance out from the chest of a ZAKU, that fell to the ground where it blow up, but as the two of them where watching this Durandal came over beside them.

"Can you two get up? You are not hurt anywhere?" He asked sounding somewhat concerned.

While taking a brief glance away from them, and over at the Abyss just as it jumped in to the air, and fired of all it's beam weapons down at the Zaft mobile suits on the ground, taking a great deal of them out.

Hearing the man asked them that Athrun quickly helped Cagalli back up on her feet, then turned and looked over at the man just as a few minor explosions could be heard all over the base.

"We are all right sir, but what are those things?!" Athrun asked loudly even true he already knew the answer.

He himself had after all pilot both the Aegis and the Justice, so he knew a gundam when he saw one, and there was just no doubt about what these machines where.

Looking a few seconds at the young man, Gilbert knew that the blue hair teen had already found the answer to his question.

"I will tell you about it later, but now I think it's much more important that the two of you get out of here!" he said, just before he turned and looked over at a soldier that was standing just a bit away from him, where he immediately yelled out for him to get them to safety.

Those few words was enough for the man to step over next to Athrun and Cagalli. "Ok come with me I will get you to the shelter!" he said in a loud tone, just as he turned around and ran off with the two teens following closely behind him.

Once they where out of sight Gilbert turned and took a small glance around at the people gather around him.

"WE are getting those machines back no matter what, so hurry up and call the Minerva for some back up, I want as many of our best pilots out here as possible!" the black hair man yelled, seeing a few soldiers began working on filling out his orders.

After that he turned and saw two DINNs attacking the Chaos, but the green mobile suit had no trouble at all taking the two of them out.

Seeing that a deep frown ran over his forehead, and he just couldn't help but mutter a small curse, he truly hated the idea of such powerful weapons as those three gundams in the hands of somebody skilled enough to get all the way in here without being seen.

And he knew that getting the three mobile suits back intact would be a very hard thing to do.

But that did not mean he was just going to stand and watch, while those guys waltz of with something Zaft had used so much time and money to build.

It was just about the same time that one of the soldiers told him that it was properly best that they too got away from there.

Looking a bit at the man Gilbert slowly nodded a single time, just as they all turned and ran of hoping to get a bit more distance between them self and the fighting mobile suits.

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Not that far away Athrun and Cagalli was still running after the man that was suppose to lead them to the shelter.

When suddenly the black BuCUE like gundam drop down almost in front of them where it began shooting of it's weapons, taking down a few GAZuOOT that was shooting at it.

Once those where destroyed, it got back in to it's mobile suit mode, and walked of firing it's beam rifle at everything it got close.

Seeing that happening Athrun tighten his grip on Cagalli's hand and pull her along with him, they had both lost sight of the man when the black gundam had shown up so they didn't have many other options then try and find a safe place on their own.

But they hadn't really been running for long before they saw the green gundam slamming it's saber in to the cockpit of a GINN.

Seeing that Athrun quickly chance direction pulling Cagalli with him behind a few already destroyed mobile suits.

Once back there he hugged her as tightly as possible just as the GINN exploded behind them, feeling the wind and a few parts from the Zaft machine fly over their heads.

Athrun couldn't help but curse loudly as he stood there still holding on to Cagalli, doing everything he could to protect the one he loved.

"DAMN IT ALL!" he yelled, just as they saw the Gaia jump over the place where they where hiding out.

Seeing the black mobile suit continue on it's rampage, Cagalli asked the one thing she truly want to know.

"Why is this happening, why did something like that had to be here?!" the blond girl asked, as she watched the Gaia take down two DINNs that was attacking it, making both of them fall straight to the ground.

Seeing that Cagalli hurried trusted her face in to Athrun's chest not wanting to see the two pilots getting killed.

But while she did that, the first DINN crashing full speed in to a ZAKU that had was just about to attack the Gaia.

The other DINN tried to stay in the air, but in the end one of it's wings broke of and it smash right through the roof of a nearby building, where it didn't even take a second before it blow up.

Which was more then enough to make the last ZAKU that just happened to be in there to fall over and crash down, not that far away from where Cagalli and Athrun was hiding out.

When that happened both of them immediately turned their attention over on the green mobile suit, and just seeing how close they where to the thing was enough to make a determined look ran over Athrun's face, as he again took a hold on Cagalli's hand, pulling her with him over to the ZAKU, while keeping a close eye on the black mobile suit that was still busy shooting at everything it was close.

And just one look at the machine, was enough to show the two of them that the pilot inside the gundam, didn't care much about how many people got killed in this.

And just seeing whoever was in there fight so mercilessly made the young couple run even faster towards their destination.

Once there, Athrun didn't even waste a second in helping Cagalli up on the green mobile suit, where she looked at him with a somewhat confused expression on her face.

"Athrun what are we doing up here?!" She asked loudly just as both of them heard yet another explosion coming from the Gaia's direction.

Hearing her asked that Athrun took a quick glance back at her, before he reached out to open up the cockpit. "Hurry and get in before it gettes back here!" the blue hair man said, while taking another look over at the Gaia.

Where he saw it slam it's beam saber in to the side of a white GuAIZ, that immediately blow up, after that the Gaia turned and looked around for a new target.

But once it notice that the other Zaft force, was busy trying to stop the Chaos and the Abyss, it gave the rest of the GuAIZ a hard kick, making it's head fly away from the body.

After that it didn't take long before the black mobile suit was walking slowly through all the destruction it had made.

Seeing that it was coming right at them, Athrun hurried picked up Cagalli bridal style and jumped in to the cockpit, where he immediately began powering up the machine.

"Athrun are you sure this is a good idea? It has been some time since you last piloted a mobile suit!" Cagalli said in a loud tone, clearly not happy about having to use something like this.

But she knew just as well as Athrun that staying outside at a time like this, would no doubt be complete suicide.

Either they would be stepped on by one of the machine, or caught up between the three gundams and the Zaft force, that was still trying their best to stop them.

Those few words immediately made Athrun take a small glance down at the girl on his lab, before he continued working on the control.

"I don't really have much of a choice at this point, and there is just no way I'm going to let you die at a place like this, Kira, Lacus and Mayu would never forgive me if anything happened to you!" Athrun said still with that determined look in both of his eyes, while thinking a few seconds about all their friends down on earth.

He did however not think about them for long before he gave a his head a quick shook, getting all of his concentration back on getting the ZAKU up on it's feet.

Which was actually much hard then he had first thought, one small look down at the mobile suits controls, was more then enough to tell him what exactly the problem was.

And just seeing what was wrong made the young man narrow his eyes a bit.

"Damn you, get up you stupid piece of junk!" Athrun yelling forcing the green mobile suit to stand up even with all the damage on the left leg.

But after a few short seconds he finally succeed in getting the Zaft machine up on it's two feet, but as he did that both he and Cagalli saw the Gaia turn and look over at them.

The almost black gundam actually looking a bit like it was wondering why they suddenly had began moving around.

And after watching them for a bit the gundam lifted it's beam rifle and fired a single shoot at them.

Apparently thinking that the one shot was enough to take them out, but just before the beam could hit them, Athrun got the ZAKU moving and flew straight over the beam, making it hit an old building instead.

Not that Athrun cared much about that, all of his attention was turned towards getting the mobile suit back down on the ground without falling over.

He knew that if he didn't land just right, there was a very big chance that they would fall over, with the bad condition the left leg was in.

And even as both feet hit the ground, the leg gave a somewhat loud metallic sound, that made it clear that it would be a good idea to get the leg repaired soon.

"Damn it, I can't fight properly with the left leg like this!" Athrun yelled jumping to the side, just nearly avoiding getting hit by another shot from the Gaia, this time he did however have a bit more trouble with the landing.

But thanks to a few attacking DINNs he still succeed in getting the ZAKU securely down on the ground, once more hearing the metal on the damage leg scream loudly under the pressure.

Which again made him curse loudly as he pulled out the beam tomahawk, and got the green mobile suit in to a combat stand, with the tomahawk up and ready to fight the black gundam.

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Meanwhile over in the Gaia, Stella had just finished taking down the last of the DINNs that had been attacking her.

So once she had made sure that there was nothing else that could interrupted her, in trying to blast the irritating ZAKU to pieces.

She slowly turned and looked over at the green mobile suit, where the first thing she noticed was that it had it's beam tomahawk out, and that it was ready to use it.

Seeing that a small smile ran over her lips, however was inside that machine was good.

And as much as she liked taking down all those fools that had tried to stop her up until now, she did like the idea of fighting someone that could give her the chance to really test the black mobile suit out.

So after looking at it for a bit she put the beam rifle away and pulled out the right beam saber.

"Ready or not here I come!" She yelled loudly just before she jumped in to the air, heading straight over towards the ZAKU.

Once close enough she hurried slammed the weapon out after the Zaft machine, that defend itself with it's shield, while quickly trying to hit her with it's own close combat weapon.

But the blonde girl made sure to get her own shield up to counter the tomahawk, before it could do any serious damage to the Gaia.

The two mobile suits continued struggle like that for a few minor seconds until the ZAKU pulled back and jumped just a bit away from her, looking after it for a bit the girl was just about to take off after the machine.

When she noticed the somewhat bizarre about way it was moving, there was clearly something wrong with the left leg, that made it much hard for the person in there to control the mobile suit.

Realizing that this guy thought he could take her out with a damaged mobile suit a deep angry frown ran over her face.

For some reason she truly felt a bit like this guy was mocking her, by fighting in something like that, and she did not like that at all.

"You bastard, how dare you fight me in something like that!" she yelled just before she pulled out her beam rifle and once again began using the green mobile suit as target practice.

It was however not that surprising it did everything possible to evade every single beam she fired of after it.

Yet that only served to make Stella feel all the more determined to take this guy out.

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At the same time on the Minerva, Nicol was running full speed towards his sun yellow GOUF, dressed in a normal Zaft space suit in the same colours, once inside the machine he hurried called up the bridge.

"Miss Gladys! I'm ready to head out now!" he told the brown hair woman, while slowly getting his mobile suit over on the catapult, waiting for Meyrin to tell him that he could leave.

But it was only after the Core Splendor and all the parts of the Impulse had left that he got permission to leave the ship.

Once outside he watched as the Impulse was put together, and even true this was not the first time he got to see this, it was still a very impressive sight, that made a small smile ran over his face.

And once he saw the Sword Silhouette land on the mobile suits back, the two of them flew of full speed towards the ground, where they land beside each other.

Both of them looking out over all the damage the three mobile suits had made to this place. "Damn you bastards, you are going to pay for this!" Shinn yelled in a very loud angry tone.

Just as he put the two beam swords together swing it around a few times over his head before he activated the weapon, he did however not get much time to show of like that before the Chaos came flying right at them shooting of it's beam rifle.

Seeing that Shinn hurried jumped up over the shoot and slammed the weapon out after the green gundam, that defend itself with it's shield.

Which Shinn hurried tried to push away, so he could get to the cockpit.

But unfortunately the person inside the stolen mobile suit was to good to fall for a simple trick like that, he hurried backed away from him, and fired of his beam rifle at him.

Seeing that Shinn hurried maneuvered over the green beam and pulled the two swords apart, throwing the left one of them with as much force as possible straight at the Chaos, that quickly knocked it away with the shield.

Not that Shinn cared much about that, he was already charging full speed at the green mobile suit, with the other sword ready to strike.

He did however not even get close to the other gundam when a big red beam came flying straight at him.

Seeing that he hurried got to a hold and evade the beam, only to throw himself to the side a second later, just as rain of green beams was shoot of after him from the Abyss.

Noticing that he now had two stolen gundams to do battle with he, took a small look around wondering slightly what had happened to Nicol, but it didn't really take long before he saw his friends yellow mobile suit flying full speed towards the Gaia.

Obviously trying to help out a single lonely ZAKU that had been fighting with the black gundam for some time now.

Noticing that there was no help from the other boy Shinn again looked back at the other gundams.

"Looks like I have to beat the two of you up on my own!" he said making it sound like he wasn't going to have any trouble at all taking care of the two gundams.

But he didn't get much time to think about that before the Chaos fired a few shoots at him, then ran full speed towards him with it's beam saber out.

And it didn't even take a second before he and the Chaos meet, both of them slamming their beam weapons out at each other, they did however not stayed locked together for long before Shinn was forced to back away to avoid another attack from the Abyss.

Once he got a little distance between them he hurried pulled out his own beam rifle, and fired a few shoots at the blue mobile suit trying to hit the cockpit, not that he had much luck with that.

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While the red gundam was shooting at him like that, Auel used one of the fins to take the first two beams, before he quickly duck down under the third shoot that was heading right for him.

After that he hurried jumped away, before it could fire any more beams at him.

Once he was sure that the unknown mobile suit had all of it's attention turned over towards Sting, that was at this moment trying to hit the machine with his own rifle.

Auel shoot of the chest cannon right at the sword swing mobile suit trying to take off both of it's legs, that way they could most likely get that machine too.

But just as the red beam was about to make contact, the red gundam jumped away so the shoot flew in and hit the ground instead, but as Auel look after the enemy machine, it shoot of both the machine guns it had in it's chest.

So after avoiding the minor attack, from the other gundam the blue hair teenager could not help but ask the one question that had been running through his mind ever since that red mobile suit had show up.

"What is that damn thing? I thought that there was only suppose to be three new models!" the boy said, clearly angry that they had to fight something like this.

Neo did tell them before they got in here that the only thing they should worry about was getting their hands on the three gundams.

He hadn't said one a single thing about there being more then just the three of them.

It was just about that time the Sting began talking in a very loud tone.

"How the heck should I know what it is? I mean it's clearly a gundam, but I have no idea about what the hell that thing is called, and it's not like it has anything to do with our mission, so lets just hurry up and take care of it, I really don't want to stay in here much longer!" the green hair teen yelled, while again shooting of the beam rifle at the annoying red mobile suit.

"Fine with me, it's head would make one hell of a souvenir!" Auel yelled loudly just as he charged of full speed at the enemy machine, the lance up and ready to strike.

But he didn't even get near it before it pulled out a beam boomerang and throw it straight at him, forcing him to get out of the way in a hurry, just as the weapon was about to hit him, after that Auel again shoot of the chest cannon.

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While those three gundams was busy fighting each other Nicol was flying full speed at the Gaia, where he gave it a very hard kick in it's side just as it was about to shoot one more time after the damage ZAKU that was having a very tough time avoiding all of it's attacks.

Once he was sure that it was out for a bit, the green hair boy hurried got in contact with the ZAKU.

"Hurry up and get out of here, I'll take care of this guy!" Nicol yelled loudly before cutting of the communication to the green mobile suit.

Once he had delivered that small message, he didn't waste anytime in pulling out the beam sword and began shooting at the Gaia with the beam gun.

Yet just as the beams was about to hit the machine it transformed in to it's four legged mode and ran straight at him.

Seeing that Nicol quickly slammed the whip out after the Gaia but it just jumped over the weapon, while still heading right for him.

But before it could get any closer the green hair boy jumped right over the black gundam, but while he was doing that, he turned and once again tried hitting the Gaia with the whip, but it once again succeed in avoiding the electric weapon.

But that the not stop Nicol from shooting of the beam gun after the black machine, just as it land on a destroyed building and took of directly at him.

It did however not get far before a white ZAKU land beside the GOUF where it immediately began shooting of it's beam rifle at the Gaia.

"Are you all right over there Nicol?" Rey asked a bit concerned about his friend over in the GOUF.

Nicol however just took a small glance over at the ZAKU before he again throw out the whip after the black gundam. "Yeah I'm all right, but I'm sick of this damn thing, so if you can help me take it out I will pay neck time we order a pizza or something like that!" Nicol said in a loud tone, just as the two of them jumped over the Gaia, each of them shooting of their beam weapons after the fast running mobile suit.

That quickly jumped to the side to evade the beams before it again ran full speed at them, forcing the two boys to get out of the way in a hurry before the two beam blades could get near them.

Yet as the two elite Zaft pilots fought with the Gaia, Nicol suddenly realized that one of them where missing and took a small look around before he again turned his attention back towards the four legged mobile suit.

That did however not stop the boy from asking the one thing he really want to know. "What is Luna doing right now, we could really use her help?!" Nicol called out again throwing the whip after the Gaia, that quickly jumped over the weapon and ran straight him.

Only to be cut of by a few shoots from the white ZAKU forcing the person inside the Gaia to change direction, making all three beams hit the ground instead.

"She had a little trouble getting her ZAKU started, some mechanics should be repairing it as we speak, but for now we have to handle things without her!" Rey said, as he again began opening fire after the Gaia, once again forcing the black gundam to chance course.

But this time it was the only thing it chance now it was coming right at him, seeing that Rey immediately got ready to take on the gundam in close combat.

But it didn't even get near him before Nicol flew in and gave the Gaia a very hard kick in it's side making it smash in to a already destroyed building.

After that Nicol got the beam sword ready and was just about to put the weapon through the Gaia's cockpit.

Yet unfortunately before he could do that, a few beams flew down at him making him evade to the side, before the attacks from the Chaos could get him killed.

It was just about the same time that the Impulse land beside them, both swords out and ready to fight. "I'm sorry but that bastard got away from me!" Shinn said in a truly angry tone, that made it obvious to everybody that knew the boy that he was running very short on patience.

And that could only mean he was just about ready to kill all three of the pilots inside the stolen gundams, and the only reason he was holding back was because he had been order to bring all three gundams back.

"I'm going to slaughter all three of them!" Shinn growled just before he took of towards the Chaos, truly determined to make the moron inside the green mobile suit, regret that he had ever thought about piloting a mobile suit in the first place.

And it didn't take long before the two gundams meet, both of them slamming their beam weapons together.

Seeing Shinn fight so hard the two other Zaft pilots took a small glance over at each other before they too left the ground and flew full speed towards the battle, both of them anxious to help out their friend against the three different coloured gundams.

Which meant that it did not takr long before the six mobile suits was once more far away in their intense battle.

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At the same time a certain bad walking ZAKU was looking for a place where the two passengers could get of, the two of them had been pretty quiet since the yellow mobile suit had told them to get away from the black gundam.

And it was quite obvious that the two of them where far away in their own thoughts.

But finally after a few very long minutes, a deep sigh could be heard from Cagalli.

"That was Nicol wasn't it?" The blond hair girl asked in a somewhat quiet tone, while thinking back to the last time they had seen the green hair boy, that had been shortly after the Archangel had gotten back to earth after the last battle at Jachin Due.

But he didn't really stay down there for long before he had told them all that he was going home, and that he missed his parents.

After that, none of them had heard a thing from him, even true Athrun had tried more then a few times to get in contact with his green hair friend.

But every time he did that he would never get an answer back, it was almost like the green hair boy had forgotten they existed, something that had made both Athrun and Dearka very sad.

Hearing Cagalli ask that Athrun took a look down at her with a sad look in both of his eyes.

He too thinking about Nicol and the last time he had seen him, back then he had seemed so depressed, not that anybody could blame him with Mayura gone.

And if somebody back then had told Athrun that Nicol was going to piloted a mobile suit again, he would properly have laugh in their face.

He seriously didn't think Nicol would ever get in to such a machine ever again, so after sitting there a few minutes just looking at Cagalli and thinking about his old friend, Athrun slowly let out a small breath.

"Yes it was, he did sound a bit different but I can recognize that voice everywhere, but I just don't understand why he is here, I didn't think he would ever fight again after what happened in the last war!" Athrun said, truly sadden that Nicol had to go through the pain of losing Mayura like that.

Looking a few seconds at her boyfriend Cagalli nodded slowly in agreement.

"Yeah I was thinking the same thing, but maybe once all of this is over we might finally get the chance to talk with him again!" the blond hair girl said, truly hoping that they could have a nice long conversation with their old friend.

Hearing those few words made Athrun take another short glance down at the girl on his lab. "Yeah I hope so too, I would be lying if I said that I haven't miss him, ever since he left, and I know Dearka and Miriallia would also like to have a talk with him!" Athrun said in a somewhat quiet voice.

While thinking back to how quiet and depressed his two other friends had seemed, the last time they had been talking about the former Blitz pilot.

Thinking a few second about what her boyfriend had just told her Cagalli nodded slowly a single time, just as she noticed a red ZAKU walking just ahead of them.

It was obvious for the blond girl that the other Zaft mobile suit that it was in the same kind of condition as the machine she and Athrun was in right now.

So after looking at it a bit longer she again opened her mouth where she immediately began to talk in a somewhat thoughtful tone.

"Lets hurry after that red mobile suit Athrun, I mean it's obviously damage, so it's most likely going to a place where it can be repaired!" Cagalli said not once taking her eyes away from the ZAKU that continued walking slowly in front of them.

Those few words made Athrun look up again and out at the red mobile suit, where he immediately noticed that Cagalli was right about the ZAKU being damage.

So without saying a word he hurried took of after the other machine determined not to let it get to far away, but after walking after it for a few minutes he began wondering where exactly the red ZAKU was going.

But he did not get much time to think about that before an enormous explosion shook the entire colony, that really did seem like it was going to last forever, but after a little while the colony finally stopped shaking again.

Which immediately made Cagalli ask what the hell was happening now, and even true she did sound a bit angry, Athrun could still sense a bit of fear in her voice, not that he could blame her.

He too somewhat worried, that this would turn out just like Heliopolis.

But it did seemed like the explosions had stopped at least for now, so after think a bit more about it, he told her the answer to her question, while again taking another look out after the red ZAKU.

"We are being attacked from the outside!" he said just as he saw the ZAKU entered what looked like a hangar of a big grey space ship, seeing that he stopped and just stood there a few minutes, thinking about if it was a wise move to follow the red mobile suit in there.

But when another explosion could be heard from the outside, he got a determined expression on his face.

As he once more got the ZAKU they where in moving, and walked in to the hangar of the obvious the giant war ship.

To be continued.

I'll see all of you next time, remember leaving a comment or two.


	2. Chapter 2

Here we go again, it didn't take nearly as long to write this chapter as I expect, so please enjoy and remember to review.

Chapter 2

It was just after things had settle down a bit after the first explosion had shook the colony.

"WHAT the hell was that about?!" Shinn coursed while looking up at the ceiling for a few minutes before he again turned his attention back towards the three stolen gundams, seeing that they still looked ready to fight.

But from what he could tell it shouldn't be long now before they would ran out of power, they had after all been at it for a while now, and there was just no way they could keep going like this.

He was just about to take of after them again, when Nicol began talking over from his GOUF.

"Well if I had a guess on what it was, I would think it was something that came here to pick up those guys" the green hair boy said while taking a deep breath, before he once again continued talking to his two friends.

"It does make sense if you think about it, they are after all here to capture those mobile suits, and it would be pretty bad planing on their parts if they didn't have someway to escape, and from what I can tell, those three are not small flies they really do know what they are doing, so we better stop wasting time and take them down, before they can find out of the colony!" Nicol said in a somewhat thoughtful tone, as he got ready to attack the Abyss one more time.

Thinking a small minute about Nicol's words Rey got a somewhat determined look in both of his eyes, as he again turned his gaze over on the three gundams.

He knew Nicol was right about what he had just said.

If those three really did get out of here, they most likely wouldn't be able to get their hands on any of them again, so maybe it would be best to just destroy them before they could get that far.

"Ok you two lets take them out and lets stop worrying about how much damage we make on them, I think it's best we destroy them, before they can really become a threat to us, Shinn you go in first me and Nicol will cover you!" Rey explained, while taking a short glance between his two friends machines.

Before he once again turned his attention over on the three gundams.

Hearing Rey say that Shinn couldn't help but smile a bit, he was glad that he didn't have to think about what kind of condition the stolen gundams was in when he was done with them, with that in mind he took of full speed towards the three of them, both beam swords out and ready to strike.

He did however not get far before the Gaia turned and began shooting at him like there would be no day tomorrow.

Seeing how determined the bastard inside the black mobile suit was to take him out, the boy quickly decided that he would go after that machine first, so itn't would end up hurting Nicol and Rey while it was trying to take him out.

"You damn bastard you are finished!" he called out loudly, as he slammed both swords down after the Gaia, but before any of the weapons could get in contact with the machine, it got in to it's four legged mode and jumped away from him.

But while it was doing that it turned and shoot of the three beam rifles at him, making Shinn lifted up the shield to defend himself, after that he quickly pulled out the beam rifle that up until now had been on the Impulse's back, then he turned and fired a single shoot after the Gaia.

Yet before the green beam could hit the black machine, it hurried evade to the side and ran straight at him.

Seeing that Shinn again fired two shoots after the four legged mobile suit, forcing it to change direction.

And now that it's back was turned towards him, Shinn pull out one of the beam boomerangs and without wasting even a second he throw it with full speed after the enemy mobile suit.

But unfortunately before the weapon could hit the black mobile suit the Chaos jumped in and knocked the boomerang away with one of it's beam sabers.

Just the sight of the green gundam interfering was enough for a very deep frown to ran over Shinn's face. "You damn son of a bitch!" he growl out in a truly angry tone, just before he charged of full speed towards the two gundams.

Utterly determined to tear them completely apart even if it was the last thing he ever did.

And it did not take all that long before he was fighting with the two mobile suits with everything he got.

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Meanwhile over in the Chaos Sting hurried duck under the left beam sword from the red gundam, only to slam his saber together with the right one a second later.

Which resulted in that the two gundams end up with their weapons locked together, both of them fighting hard to get a hit in on each other.

But even while all of that was going on, Sting took a short glance away from the unknown mobile suit and down at the power, seeing that it was running dangerously low.

Which got him to slowly bite himself in his lower lip. "Stella, Auel we need to get out of here, if we stay in here much longer they will capture us!" the green hair boy yelled just before he quickly jumped a bit away from the red mobile suit.

Where he hurried shoot of the few missiles he had left, forcing the red gundam to back away from him before any of the warheads could hit it.

Seeing that he now had a small break from fighting that damn mobile suit he hurried made his way over to the Abyss, that up until now had been busy trying to take out the white ZAKU and that other strange machine.

"Auel are you ready to go?!" Sting asked in a serious tone, while firing a few shoots after the yellow mobile suit, that had been just about to attack them again.

And with Auel's help, the two boys had no trouble at all keeping the yellow Zaft machine away, but even as they where trying to take that mobile suit out.

The ZAKU began shooting at them from another direction, which made Auel turn and shoot right back.

"Yeah I'm ready to go, but I kinda wish we could have beaten the crap out of those three bastards!" the blue hair boy yelled, while using one of the fins to take a single beam from the white somewhat annoying mobile suit.

Hearing Auel say that Sting could only nod slowly in agreement. "Yeah I know what you mean, but we have to wait until next time before we can do that!" the green hair boy said and was just about to say something else.

When Stella suddenly began yelling in a very angry tone, that made it obvious for both of them, that she was utterly pissed off and that she was far from done fighting against those three oppositions.

"I'm not going anywhere before I destroy all three of them, especially that red one!" the blond girl growled out in a completely wicked tone, before she once again jumped straight at the enemy gundam that used it's shield to make sure that it wouldn't get any damage from her attack.

But that did not stop Stella from trying to take the bastard out one more time.

Seeing just how aggressive the blonde hair girl was fighting right now Auel got a somewhat annoyed look on his face, as he watched the Gaia land with all four feet on a few parts from a destroyed building that had collapse at the start of the battle.

But it did however not stay there for long, before a single green shoot from that unknown gundam they had been fighting almost since the start of the battle, got the black mobile suit moving again.

With that the two boys could only watch, as the Gaia ran straight at the red mobile suit. Yet just as Stella was about to attack the damn thing one more time.

Another big explosion shook the entire colony, which made it pretty obvious that things outside was getting quite hectic, and that their ride couldn't stay there much long.

But seeing as Stella didn't want to leave a deep frown ran over the Abyss pilot's face.

"All right, you can stay here if you want to, me and Sting will just tell Neo that you die to protecting us. I'm absolutely sure that he would be very happy to know that you sacrificed yourself to save us!" Auel said, trying hard not to laugh at the girl, for some reason he always found it a bit funny when Stella was like this.

Hearing Auel said those words.

Stella could only sit there with big eyes as the boy's words continued running through her mind.

"DIE! I.....I.....don't want to die!" she quietly mumbled while a few tears began running slowly down her face, as she continued telling herself that she didn't want to die, and that she was so scared right now.

Yet it was only when Auel called out and told her, that he was sure that they where all going to miss her.

That the blonde girl let out a giant almost painful scream. While she quickly turned around and took of full speed away from the red gundam, she had been trying her best to defeat all of this time.

Still yelling loudly about, that she did not want to die and that she didn't want to be in there any longer.

And after that, it did not take long before the Gaia was in the air, heading towards the hull of the colony.

Which made it obvious for the two boys that she was determined to blast her way out of the colony. And just seeing her act like this a deep angry frown ran over the Chaos pilots face, as he turned and took a short glance over at the Abyss.

"Auel why did you say that you know how she react when she hears that word!" Sting said a bit angry at his blue hair friend.

The other boy however just let out a small unhappy sound before he began talking.

"Well you heard what she said, she want to stay in here, so I just told her the one thing I knew would get her moving, but never mind that we better help her, that red fellow is after her!" Auel said, before he took of to help the Gaia, that by now was under attack by the red gundam.

Seeing that Auel was right about Stella being attacked, Sting let out a small sigh, while rolling his eyes a single time at his blue hair friend, he was just about to head of after the Gaia.

When suddenly he was attacked by the white mobile suit.

Which made him lifted up the shield to take the first two shoots, after that he quickly aimed his rifle at the still attacking mobile suit, and was just about to shoot back when he heard another big scream from the girl over in the Gaia.

"Leave me alone!" she cried out and, as she evade a few shoots from the yellow Zaft mobile suit, that was once again attacking her.

Seeing that she was going to need his help to get out of there, Sting took one last look at the ZAKU where he narrowed his eyes just a bit.

But he didn't really do that for long before he hurried took of in the Gaia's direction, truly hoping he could reach the girl before anything could happen to her.

Unfortunately he didn't get very far, before he was once again attacked by the same mobile suit as before.

"Ahhh go to hell you bastard!" he called out as he began shooting at the white mobile suit, that was flying a bit away from him, but before the beams could hit the damn thing it quickly rolled to the side, where it fired a few more shoots up at him.

So after yelling out a few more curses at the white mobile suit, he once again began shooting at the damn thing, a small part of him a bit annoyed that it couldn't just have stayed down on the ground.

But now that both the Gaia and the Abyss was able to fly. He knew that the gravity inside the colony was messed up.

And that of course meant that all the other mobile suits could fly around too, which made the whole getting away from there safely so much harder.

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While all that was going on outside Lunamaria had just gotten her ZAKU over to it's usual place on the Minerva and was now on her way down to the ground where she could see Yolant and Vino waiting for her.

"Hello Lunamaria, it's good to see you are back, is it just me or are your mobile suit moving a bit strange?" Vino asked, not once taking his eyes away from the red ZAKU.

Hearing the boy ask her that, a deep frown ran over the red hair girls forehead and she was just about to tell him, that it had been like that since it was knocked over by the first explosion the three stolen gundams had made, when they broke out of the hangar they had been stored in.

But before she could even open her mouth, the cockpit of the mobile suit that had followed her in to the Minerva's hangar flew open.

And just one single look at the two people that was now getting out of the machine was more then enough to tell the red hair girl that the two of them where not Zaft soldiers.

So without giving it a second thought, she hurried reached out and grabbed the gun from a soldier that was standing next to her, and once she had made sure that the weapon was loaded.

She quickly ran over to the green mobile suit. "OK both of you put your hands on your heads, and tell me what you where doing in that machine!" the girl order in a loud tone, while aiming the gun at them, making sure that they both knew that this was serious business.

The boy however just took a single look over at her, before he helped the girl the rest of the way down from the mobile suit.

Once she was safely down on the ground, Athrun turned and looked back over at the gun swinging girl.

"I'm very sorry that we had to use that machine, but we didn't really have much of a choice, we did try and find some other solution, but we had to use that thing to defend our self against those three mobile suits, if we didn't do that, we would have been dead by now!" the blue hair boy explained, while making sure that he was standing directly in front of Cagalli, so if the red hair girl should shoot he would be the one to get hit.

Those few words did make some sense to Luna, but there was still another question she want answers to. "Ok I do get that, but I think all of us down here would like very much to know just who the heck you are?!" The girl said still pointing the gun at the two of them.

She just wasn't all that certain if the boy and girl where a threat or not.

But with everything that had happened in the last hour, it certainly didn't hurt to be at least a little cautious.

Seeing that the girl was still holding the gun up, Athrun let out a small breath, while taking a small look around at the other people down there, making sure that they where not about to open fire on them.

After that he once again looked back at the red hair girl, with a slightly uneasy look in both of his eyes.

Not that anybody but Cagalli could see it, none of the other people there knew him well enough to recognize that look.

It was then he began talking in a very loud tone, that he was sure could be heard all over the hangar.

"My name is Alex Dino and I'm the bodyguard of Cagalli Yula Athha the Orb Chief Representative, so now that you all knows just who we are will you please low your weapons?!" Athrun said, still looking a bit like he was ready to throw himself forward to get the gun away from the red hair girl.

Even true a part of him did know that doing something like that would be a very stupid idea, it was just that he was completely determined to protect the girl he loved no matter what, especially after what the two of them had just been through.

But once he saw the red hair girl low the gun, he visibly relaxed a bit, it was after all nice to know that the girl wasn't going to shoot them.

Knowing that the two of them where not a threat, Luna slowly hand the gun back to the soldier she had taken it from.

"Well, I'm truly sorry for the rude reception, but I'm sure that both of you can understand, that all of us here is just a tiny bit anxious with everything that has been going on. It's not really everyday that somebody just waltz in here, and steal three of our mobile suits like it's nothing!" the girl explained, while signal the others down there to low their weapons too.

From what she knew Zaft and Orb was on good terms, and threatening the leader of a country they where friends with, didn't really seem like the most smart thing to do.

So after standing there looking at them just a bit longer, she decide that it was properly best to make them feel somewhat welcome, even with everything that was still going on outside.

"Will the two of you please follow me, I know it would be best to tell the captain that you are on board, but I don't really think I can disturbed her right now, with the battle still going on. So for now I will show you to an empty room, where you can stay until all of this is over!" Luna said.

As she began walking down the hall, with the two of them walking closely behind her.

But even as she was leading them through the Minerva's halls, she couldn't help but take a small glance back at the blue hair guy behind her.

And it didnot take long before a small red glow ran over both of her cheeks.

The guy just looked so handsome, which made a small part of her wish that she had the time to get to know him a little better, she did however not get long to think about it before her sister's voice could be heard all over the ship.

"Attention all crew members, the Minerva will now start getting ready to go in to combat against the ship that is attacking us from the outside, so all of you are to get to your stations!" Meyrin said loudly out over the speakers.

Hearing that Athrun immediately looked up at the ceiling. "What you can't be serious, me and Cagalli don't want to be any more messed up in all of this!" the blue hair boy yelled, as he looked over at the red hair girl that had been walking in front of them this entire time.

But before the girl could even think of something to say back to the boy, a shook ran through the ship, which made it obvious for all of them, that the grey space ship really was being made ready to leave.

And just the knowledge about what was happening now, was more then enough to make Athrun mutter out a few not to happy words.

"Ahhh damn it all, why the hell didn't we stay outside?!" He asked himself, with a angry look in both of his eyes.

That made it clear for both girls that he was truly regretting getting on board this ship.

Feeling a bit sorry for them, Luna was just about to say something back.

When Cagalli reached out and took his hand where she immediately gave it a gentle squeeze, and it didn't take long before she began talking to him in the most calm tone, she could manage under the circumstance.

"Please try and relax, there was no way you could have know that this ship was going out in to battle, when we got in here Athru....Alex!" the blond girl said while taking a short glance over at the other girl, truly hoping she hadn't caught her small mistake.

But one look at the girl's surprised expression, was more then enough to tell Cagalli, that the red hair pilot had heard what name she had just used when talking to Athrun.

Luna however didn't really say anything, as she stood there looking at the blue hair boy, now with a slightly shocked look on her face, while she slowly let her eyes ran over him.

Not doing a thing to hide, that she was studying him hard, obviously trying to find some kind of answer to the questions that was now running through her mind.

Was this handsome guy, really Athrun Zala the son of Patrick Zale the last Chairman of Zaft. Just the thought that he might be who she thought he was, only served to make the interested Luna had in him rise even high.

She just couldn't help but like it, when boys had a little mystery to them.

But as the red hair girl continued standing there watching Athrun like that, a truly deep frown ran over Cagalli's face, she really didn't like it when another girl was looking at her boyfriend like this, and this girl just couldn't take her eyes of from him right now.

"Do you think you could hurry up and lead us the rest of the way to the room, you where talking about before!?" The Chief Representative said, doing her best not to sound to hostile, while glaring at the red hair girl, that was gawking so openly at her man.

Hearing those few words Luna slowly turned her attention away from Athrun and over at the blonde girl.

Where she almost immediately noticed the somewhat angry glare the other girl was giving her.

Seeing that Luna didn't even think about it for a second before she send the exact same look back, doing her best to show the other girl that she was ready to fight if there was a need for it.

So while the two girls was busy trying to see who of them could look most angry.

Athrun took a few smaller looks between them.

This was not the first time he had seen his girlfriend act like this, he still remember the very first date, the two of them had been on.

Where one of the female waiters at the restaurant they had gone to, had tried to flirt with him more then a few times, needless to say she did not get a tip.

But after watching the two ladies glare at each other for just a bit longer, he reached out and placed a hand on Cagalli's shoulder, making her turn around to look at him, where he gave her a caring smile.

Before he looked over at the red hair girl. "I think Cagalli's right there is really no need for us to stand around out here, and as much as I hate the idea about being on this ship at the moment, there isn't really all that much that can be done about it!" the blue hair man said, not doing a thing to hide, that the mood he was in right now was far from a good one.

Once those few words had left his mouth, Luna slowly turned her eyes away from the back of the blond girl and over at Athrun, where she immediately noticed the slightly angry look in both of his eyes.

But it did seem to calm him down a bit, being so close to the other girl.

Which made Luna feel just a tiny bit jealous, she couldn't even remember the last time she had a boyfriend.

And now that she had finally meet somebody interesting, he was of course taken, which made a few very colourful words ran through her head, she did however not think about that for long before she slowly shook her head a few times.

This was far from the right moment in time, for her to be thinking about something like that, there was still a lot of things she had to do with the battle still going on outside.

So with those thoughts in mind, the red hair girl slowly turned away from Athrun and Cagalli and began flying down the hall, making sure to call back for them to please follow her.

It wasn't long after that, before the three of them arrived at one of the few rooms on the ship she knew was empty.

And once they got in there it wasn't much later, before the blond hair girl moved over and sat down on one of the beds, that was in there.

While Athrun kept standing by the door looking quietly around the room for a few seconds, before his eyes landed back on her.

"Thank you very much for taking us here" the slightly older teen said, as he walked over and dropped down beside Cagalli, where the blond girl immediately moved in, and rested her head against his shoulder, where she let out a tired sigh, while both of her eyes felled shut.

Seeing that both of them where at least somewhat comfortable at the moment, Luna quickly told them to please wait in there for her to come back, after that it didn't take long, before she turned around on one foot and left the room, heading back to the hangar.

Truly hoping that the mechanics down there had somehow been able to fix her mobile suit in that short time she had been gone.

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At the same time outside Shinn was evading in between an attack from the Abyss, while getting the Impulse up to full speed, heading directly towards the Gaia that was at this very moment trying to blast it's way through the walls of the colony.

But there was just no way in hell Shinn would allow the bastard to do that. The person inside the black gundam, had already made more then enough damage around here.

And Shinn was completely determined to make sure that whoever was piloting the Gaia would suffer greatly for everything that happened since the three gundams had first broken out of the hangar.

He was just about to attack the four legged mobile suit one more time, when he was again attacked by the Abyss, which forced him to evade to the side before any of the beams could hit him.

After that he quickly fired a few beams back at the blue gundam, while looking over at the Gaia where he saw it fire all three of it's beam weapons directly at the wall of the colony, making a smaller explosion not enough to break through.

But just one look at the place where the Gaia was shooting, made it quite clear for everybody that was watching this, that it wouldn't be all that long now before the black gundam would make a very big hole in the side of the colony.

Seeing that Shinn got a hateful look in both of his red eyes, he need to stop that damn machine.

But there was just no way he could do that with the Abyss getting in his way.

He first had to find someway to get past the irritating blue mobile suit, and the boy could only think of one way to do that, he need even more speed then he had right now, and there was only one way to get that.

So after again evade an attack from the Abyss he called out to the Minerva. "I need something fast out here, so send out the Force Silhouette!" the boy order, while throwing of one of the swords after the Abyss, that quickly knocked it away with it's lance.

While flying straight at him, and it didn't even take a minute before the two gundams was trying everything possible to take each other out.

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Back on the Minerva's bridge both Arthur and Meyrin was looking over at the captain waiting to hear what she had to say, about what Shinn had just asked them to send out.

And it was only after a few short seconds before she lifted her head and looked over at Meyrin.

"Just do it, there really isn't much point in keeping it a secret now, with the three other machines being taken like this!" the woman said, with a deep frown on her forehead.

She truly didn't like where this was going as things looked now, it would be very hard getting the three gundams back, and she could already tell that their pilots wasn't fighting the three mobile suits as carefully as before.

But that might be a good idea if they really couldn't recover them, it was most likely best to just destroy them so nobody else got any use out of them.

But as the woman was thinking about all of that, the door to the bridge suddenly flew open.

And Gilbert Durandal stepped in with a angry look on his face, but it didn't take long before he looked over at her, and she could see his expression soften just a tiny bit. "How is it going Talia, any luck getting the machines back?" He asked, as he walked over and sat down in an empty chair that was just behind her.

Hearing him asked that Talia slowly shook her head.

"No, I'm very sorry, all of our pilots are doing everything they can to stop those three, but as things are going now, I really don't think they can stop them at this point in time" Talia said, just as the Force Silhouette left the Minerva heading out towards the Impulse.

Which meant that it was only a matter of a few minutes before the red gundam turned in to a blue one.

And just one look at the mobile suit was more then enough to tell everybody that it had completely change, and it didn't take long before all of them could all see the Impulse, as it once again took of after the Gaia with the Abyss following right behind him shooting at him the entire time.

But Shinn just evade the few beams, while he made his way over to the Gaia.

Seeing that Shinn had a bit more luck now Talia turned and looked back at the Chairman.

"I gave Shinn permission to use the Force Silhouette, I don't really think it's possible to hide it any longer!" Talia explained not once taking her eyes away from the black hair man behind her.

And it didn't take long before she saw a slightly thoughtful look ran over his face, but it only took a second then it was gone again.

And they could all see the man nod slowly a few time, as he opened his mouth, where he began talking in a reassuring tone.

"I agree Talia, you did make the right decision, all of us up here has to do everything we can to help our pilots out, that's the only way we can ever hope to win against opponents, no matter who they, are we always need to help each other out!" he explained.

While looking up at the screen just as the Impulse slammed one of it's beam sabers out after the Abyss.

But as he sat there watching the boy do battle, against the blue mobile suit a somewhat thoughtful expression came over Gilbert's face, as he wonder a bit if the boy was powerful enough to beat that certain person, Gilbert Durandal knew that at some point in time he need to get rid of.

But it didn't looked like Shinn could do it yet, but if the boy continued fight as he was now, then maybe someday in the future he would be able to beat him.

Those thoughts however didn't stay on his mind for long before he slowly shook his head a few times, just as he again began observing the boy fight, smiling a bit as he saw him chase after the Gaia.

"How are Rey and Nicol doing right now?" He asked a bit concerned about how the two other boys was handling things out there.

He did however not have to worry for long before the red hair girl to the left of him began talking, in a loud tone. "Both of them are fighting with the Chaos, and from what I can tell from here the two of them are all right!" Meyrin said, just as the screen jumped away from the Impulse, and over on the Chaos that was busy shooting after the yellow GOUF that was on it's tail.

But before any of the shoots could hit the Zaft mobile suit, it hurried change direction and got down under all the green beams the Chaos was firing at him, and while Nicol was taking on most of the gundams attention.

Rey's white ZAKU began attacking the Chaos from behind in a very aggressive way, that told all that was seeing this that the boy was out to destroy the Chaos.

And just the sight of how the boy was fighting made Arthur turn and look back at the woman behind him. "If he keeps going like that he might end up doing some very serious damage to the Chaos!" the man said, while taking a short glance back at the screen, where he could see both Rey and Nicol attacking the green gundam from two different directions.

Hearing her second in command say that Talia turned and looked back at him, obviously thinking hard about his words.

But just as she was about to say something back to him, Gilbert began talking in a somewhat calm tone, not once taking his eyes away from the screen.

"It's all right that they destroy them, I'm certain that nothing good will come if we lose those three, and I much rather see them destroyed then in the hands of our enemy, whoever they are!" the man said, while smiling a bit over seeing Rey fight so hard against the Chaos.

After that a small moment of complete silence fell over the crew, as all of them watched the battle.

Yet that did not last for long before Meyrin began talking in a loud obviously concerned tone.

"The Gaia have just succeed in blowing a hole through the outer wall of the colony, and it's already heading out with the Abyss and Chaos following closely behind it!" Meyrin said, while the screen showed the Gaia gundam flying out through it's homemade exit.

Seeing that a deep frown ran over Talia's face and she was just about to yell out a few orders, when she saw the Impulse fly full speed after the three stolen mobile suits.

"Damn why can he wait to hear what we have to say at a time like this?!" she muttered, a bit angry at the boy inside the Impulse.

It however not take long before she again turned her attention back over at the red hair girl. "Is the ship ready to head out Meyrin?!" She asked in a loud tone, while taking a small look around at the people gather on the Minerva's bridge.

Seeing that all of them looked like they where just waiting for her to give them some kind of order.

And once she heard Meyrin tell her that everything checked out and that the Minerva was ready.

Hearing that Talia nodded slowly a single, now with a determined look in both of her eyes.

"Good we are heading out then, we are going to cut them of before any of the stolen mobile suits can get over to whatever is waiting for them out there, after that we are going to pick up our three reckless pilots!" the woman said, just before she yelled out that the Minerva was taking off.

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Meanwhile outside on the Girty Lue, Neo Roanoke lifted his left hand and took a small look down at his watch, thinking about what was taking the three teenagers so damn long they should have been back by now.

But there was no sign of any of them, and that made him wonder what the heck they where doing.

If they didn't hurry up there was a very good chance that Zaft reinforcements would show up.

And even with only the four Dagger Ls on board, there was no way that the Girty Lue could handle a whole fleet of Zaft ships.

But while all of those thoughts was running through Neo's mind, the man beside him began talking in a slightly angry tone, that told the mask man that the captain of the ship was running very low on patience.

"We can't keep staying out here much longer Roanoke, sooner or later more Zaft forces are going to get here, so I think it would properly be best for us to leave this place, before we get in to a battle we can't win, those brats knew they had to be on time for this!" the man said, while taking another short look out of the window, clearly trying to see the three kids out there.

Hearing that, Neo turned and looked over at the man, where he smiled a bit at him.

"Don't worry, I'm sure that it wouldn't be long now, before our three little pigs will get here, it's not like it was an easy mission we send them out on, but I'm confident that they can handle it, I wouldn't have asked them to go in there, if I didn't think they could get the three gundams out!" the mask man explained, while leaning back in his chair.

Looking much more relaxed then a normal person should, under those circumstance they where in right now.

They where after all in enemy territory, and just seeing him looked so calm was enough for a deep frown to ran over the captain's forehead, and he was just about to say something back, when another one of the crew members suddenly called out to them.

"Something has just blow a big hole through the colony!" a black hair man yelled loudly, while taking a quick look back at the captain and Neo, before he once again turned his attention back towards the controls in front of him.

Hearing those few words, Neo immediately stood up and smiled a bit at the captain.

"See I knew they where going to show up, now hurry and get my mobile armor ready, I'm going out there to get our three little pigs!" the mask man joked with a grin on his face, as he turned around and left the Girty Lue's bridge.

With most of the crew looking after him, a few of them wondering how the heck he could joke around at a time like this.

But it didn't take long before the captain yelled out for the Exus to be made ready to launch, and that Neo was heading out.

After that he hurried yelled out to fire all the weapons at a single Nazca Class that was trying to get close to them.

It wasn't really that long after that, before a purple mobile armor flew full speed out from the Girty Lue's hangar, heading directly towards where he could see their newly acquired mobile suits fighting against something.

But it was only when he got a bit closer, he could actually tell, what the three of them where trying so hard to beat up.

And just the sight of the battle made a small smile ran over his lips, as he realized why the teens had taken their sweet time getting out here.

"Ok you three hurry and get back to the ship, I'm sure that you are almost out of power, I will deal with those three!" he said in a serious tone, while slowly looking the three other mobile suits over.

And it didn't not take him much time to determined which one of them where the most dangerous one, and that meant he had to get rid of that machine in a hurry.

So without giving it a second thought he took of full speed towards the blue gundam, letting the gunbarrels leave the Exus, where they immediately began shooting widely at the gundam, that hurried tried everything to evade all the beams he was firing at it.

Yet it quickly became obvious to Neo that whoever was in there, was far from use to real combat, something that gave Neo a very big advantage.

Which was shown by all the scratches that was now appearing more then a few place on the Impulse, and just seeing the guy squirming around like this was enough to make a small grin ran over Neo's face.

He did however not get much time to play around with the blue gundam, when suddenly a minor explosion caught his attention not that far away from him.

So after taking a brief glance over there, he noticed that one of the Dagger Ls had just been taken out, and that the white ZAKU was heading right for him.

He was just about to attack the hastily approaching mobile suit, when a strange feeling went through him it was almost like he knew who was inside the ZAKU and what the person was saying, it was just so hard to describe it felt so unreal.

So after thinking about it for a few seconds, he made the decision to ignore it for now, there wasn't really anything he could do about it at the moment, no matter how strange it was.

So while thinking about that he fired of a single beam after the ZAKU that immediately flew over the beam, where it fired of both it's beam rifle and a few missiles at him, but Neo just evade to the side and used the barrels to take down the warheads, before they could get to close to him.

After that he once again began shooting at the gundam, only fighting with the ZAKU when he didn't have any other options.

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At the same time over in the ZAKU Rey tried to hit the purple mobile armor, but it just slowed down a bit so the two beams past right in front of it after that it again got back in to full speed and started with it's somewhat relentless attack on the Impulse again.

And seeing just how much trouble Shinn had against this guy, the blond boy began talking to him in a loud tone.

"Shinn you have to focus more, that way you are fighting now will get you killed someday, you always have to be calm in battle, especially against a person like the one over in that mobile armor, he is not your everyday pilot that you meet all the time, this one is a real pro!" Rey said, while evading in and out between the beams from two of the gunbarrels.

But as he was doing that, he suddenly noticed that they where coming right at him, with the beam cutters out and ready to tear his ZAKU apart.

But just as they where about to hit him, he elegantly got over both of them and once again attacked the mobile armor, when he heard Shinn call out to him in a very angry tone.

"I am focusing, I just need to take that guy out then we can go after the three bastard that took our mobile suits, by the way what the hell is Nicol doing right now?!" The boy asked loudly as he pulled out one of the beam sabers and took of after the mobile armor, determined to cut that stupid thing in half, not that he ever got close enough to actually do that.

Hearing Shinn's question Rey took a look around, wondering just where exactly Nicol was, and why he wasn't helping them out.

It did however not take long, before he spotted the yellow GOUF keeping the last three Daggers busy.

And from what he could tell from where he was one of them had already taken some very serious damage, but it was kinda hard to tell from this distance.

"He can't help us Shinn! somebody needs to keep the Daggers away and Nicol is the only one that can do that right now, there is just no way for any of us to get away from this guy!" Rey yelled loudly, while flying over one of the gunbarrels, only to fire the beam rifle after it a second later.

Unfortunately the beams didn't even get close to make contact, as the barrel turned around and flew back towards the mobile armor, where it immediately got ready to land on the purple machine.

It did however not get the opportunity to do that when it was cut in two by the Impulse.

Seeing that Rey couldn't help but smile a bit, as he again tried to hit the fast moving thing with the rifle. But now they guy was a bit more careful to leave himself open like that, and even as Rey tried to shoot down the armor he began talking to Shinn.

"Good job Shinn now lets hurry and get rid of this guy, I'm sure that it wouldn't be long now before the Impulse will run out of power, and if that happens we are going to have some serious problems!" Rey said, while evading an attack from the mobile armor itself.

Hearing his friend say that, and seeing how hard Rey was fighting right now, Shinn got an angry look on his face as he shoot the two machine guns in the Impulse's chest trying to take out one more of the gunbarrels.

Yet this time it did avoid the attack and flew back to the purple machine where it land safely on top of it.

After that it did not even take a second before the mobile armor once again took of after Rey.

With Shinn looking after it the entire time, and just seeing how well this guy was fighting was more then enough to make a deep angry frown ran over his face.

How the hell could this guy fight so well, he should have beaten him by now, the Impulse was after all much more powerful then that stupid mobile armor, but up until now he had only succeed in taking down one of the barrels.

And that had only been because the bastard in there had been far to busy fighting with Rey. "Damn you, I'm going to show you who the hell you are messing with!" the boy yelled.

Just before he once again flew full speed after the irritating machine, now even more determined to show this bastard, that there was no way he Shinn Asuka was going to lose to him.

Unfortunately he didn't get very far, before he once again was attacked by two of the barrels, and even true the only thing he really want to do right now was to cut the mobile armor straight over.

He just couldn't find a way past those damn barrels.

It wasn't like he could just ignore them, if he did something like that he would surely get his ass handed to him, that however didn't mean he couldn't at the very least try and get close enough to take the bastard out.

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At the same time the Minerva was flying slowly away from the colony and was soon up to full speed.

"Everything seems all right Ma'am, the Minerva is ready for combat, you just said the word and we can enter our first battle!" Arthur said, sounding a bit proud over how well the ship was flying, while taking a small look over at the captain.

That nodded slowly to his words, and asked where what their three mobile suit was doing.

That was when the red hair girl up there began talking in a loud tone. "The Impulse and ZAKU are in a battle with something, it's kinda hard to tell what it is from this

distance, but I think it's a mobile armor of some kind!" the girl said.

While using a few seconds to try and find Nicol's GOUF, but when she actually did found him she didn't waste any time in telling them what he was doing.

Hearing what was going on Talia turned her head away from Meyrin and looked out at the strange looking space ship they where heading right for.

"We are going to attack that ship, that will be the best way to get the enemy to fall back, and until we found out the real name of that ship, we will call it Bogey One, make sure to enter that in to our database!" the woman said, slowly looking the blue coloured space ship over.

For some reason she couldn't help but think that the ship looked kind weird, but maybe that was just her imagination.

"Once we get in range of them, make sure to keep moving so they wouldn't hit us with any of their weapons, we don't really know what this ship is capable of, so stay on your toes and don't let your guard down!" the woman order loudly.

Just before she told them to get their own weapons ready and that they where going to try and hit the engine with their first attack.

That way there might still be a chance for them to get the three gundams back, and maybe find out just where those guys had came from, there wasn't really much on the ships hull, that show them just who exactly this ship was fighting for.

So if they could capture them then that would be for the best. "Captain we are in range, the ship is firing missiles!" Arthur yelled out in a slightly panicky tone.

Not that Talia thought much about that she just yelled out to evade them.

But even as they where doing that, a few warheads continued heading right for them, but thanks to all the weapons on the Minerva not a single one of them hit.

"Get the Tristan ready fire!" the woman yelled out, but just as the four beams was about to hit the ship it suddenly disappeared right in front of them, which made all of their eyes widen a bit, as Arthur asked loudly what happened to the ship.

Even true the answer was quite obvious, it did however take a few minutes before Talia let out a small sigh.

Just before she began talking in a somewhat thoughtful tone. "They are using Mirage Colloid, this might be much harder then I first thought!" the brown hair captain said, while trying to find the blue space ship again.

But there was just no sign of it right now, but she knew that it was still in the area, seeing as the purple mobile armor was still having fun with the Impulse and Rey's ZAKU.

"Hmm the only thing we can do now is go help out our pilots, and if we want some clues on who the hell sat this thing up, we have to try and get our hands on that mobile armor, even true I do think that's going to be easy said then done!" Talia said, studying how the person was using his machine.

There was little doubt in her mind, that this guy was a true ace pilot, seeing just how easily he was handling their two mobile suits.

It was just about the same time the Gilbert began talking behind her.

"I don't think this person are going to be that easy to capture Talia, from what I can see he seems to be quite a determined fellow, not somebody that are going to be taken down without a fight!" the man said, while seeing the mobile armor fly over another attack from Rey's ZAKU.

That was when Meyrin once again began talking over from her sit.

"The Impulse is running dangerously low on power!" the red hair girl yelled, a bit concerned that Shinn would get seriously hurt if he continued staying out there much longer.

But even as those words left her mouth the captain just looked over at her, where she gave her a reassuring look.

"Please don't worry Meyrin, I'm sure that the guy is going to retreat when he sees us coming at him, he might be able to keep Rey and Shinn busy, but I really don't think he has that much of a death wish, that he would risk his life fighting us too!" the captain said, while ordering the crew to get ready to fire a warning shoot in the direction of the battle.

Even true a big part of her really did want to attack the purple mobile armor, but they couldn't do that with the Impulse and ZAKU so close to it.

If they really did something like that, they might end up hitting their own.

So they just had to do the next best thing, and that was to try and scared away, and a shoot from the Tristan should be more then enough for that.

And it wasn't even a minute later before both cannons was shoot of, in the three fighting machines direction.

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When that happened, Neo slowly lifted his head and looked up at the green beams from the still approaching space ship.

Once they had fade away he immediately turned the armor around and took a quick looked over at the ship, where he slowly raised his left eyebrow under his mask.

"Hmmm it would seem like, we have outstayed our welcome here!" he said, with a hint of a smile on his face, just before he called out to the last two mobile suit that they where leaving this place.

With that all three machines took of full speed away from the battle they had been in engaged in up until now.

Each of them begin extra careful not to get in range of any of the Minerva's many weapons.

They truly didn't feel like fight something that powerful at the moment, if they really had to fight do something like that, they would surely need a very good strategy.

It wasn't all that long after that before all three machines reached the now again visible blue space ship, where the mobile armor enter the hangar first followed closely by the two mobile suit.

Once all three machine secured inside the blue space ship, the Mirage Colloid was activated once again, which made it very hard to figure out where exactly the ship was heading.

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Just seeing the mobile armor retreat like that a deep angry frown ran over Shinn's face, he was just about to chase of after the purple machine.

When Nicol dropped down in front of him stopping him from going anywhere.

"Get out of the way Nicol I'm not done with this guy yet, there is no way in hell he is going to get away with what he has done!" the Impulse piloted yelled loudly, as he again tried to get past the GOUF.

But Nicol made sure that the only way Shinn would get past him, was to force him to move and even true Nicol knew that the younger teen was pissed of right now.

The green hair boy was completely certain that Shinn wouldn't try something like that.

"Please take a deep breath and try and calm down Shinn, if you go after that guy now you will surely die, there is no way you can beat him now" Nicol said in a deep serious tone, while still not moving away from the Impulse's path.

Hearing that Shinn was just about to say something back, when Rey got over next to them, where he immediately began talking sounding just as calm about all of this as Nicol.

"I agree with everything Nicol have just said Shinn, it really wouldn't lead to anything good if we just rush after those guys without some kind of plan, beside the Impulse needs to be recharge and my ZAKU did take a bit of damage while we where fighting that mobile armor. And I would actually like to have just a tiny break before we get in to a battle again" Rey explained, while he slowly turned away and took of towards the Minerva, just as the ship fired the return signal.

Seeing that Nicol too turned away and began making his way back to the grey space ship.

With the Impulse pilot looking after him the entire time.

Once he saw the yellow mobile suit enter the ships hangar.

He couldn't keep his anger down any longer, he slammed both of his fists down as hard as possible in to the controls there, almost breaking a few things there.

"DAMN THOSE GUYS! You just wait till the next time we meet, then you are all going to DIE!" the boy yelled loudly.

And with a truly angry expression covering his entire face, he once again gave the controls a few minor hits, not caring one bit if he did damage something in there.

And it was only when he heard Meyrin tell him that he should hurry up and get back here, that he got his temper a bit under control, but that did not mean he was far from finished being angry.

And even while he was flying back to the Minerva, he kept mumbling about just what he was going to do, when they found those bastards again, there where surely going to pay for everything they had done.

"You just wait till I get my hands on you!" he muttered, now with a somewhat wicked grin on his face, as he slowly enter the Minerva's hangar.

Still with all those delightful thoughts running through his mind.

To be continued.

I'm sure some of you are a bit curious about when Kira and Lacus are going to show up, but it will however take some time yet before any of them will appear in this story.


	3. Chapter 3

I'm sorry this took so long.

I have been kinda busy with other things the last few weeks, so I didn't have all that much time to write on this.

Chapter 3

It had been about a half hour since they had gotten on the ship.

And at this moment Cagalli was sleeping peacefully on top of him, not that Athrun could blame her.

He too was quite exhausted after everything that had happened, and if somebody asked him and he had to give them an honest answer he to would like very much to get a few hours of sleep.

But as things looked now, he really did think that it was a good idea that one of them was awake, when that red haired girl or somebody else would finally come here to get them.

"I wonder how the battle is going, everything seems pretty quiet now" he mumbled softly to himself, as he slowly ran his fingers through Cagalli's short blond hair, truly enjoying the silky feeling of it between his fingers.

Which made him think about what exactly she did to make i feel this soft.

"Hmm....Athrun....." she sigh loudly while snuggling even deep in to his chest, where a small content smile ran over her lips before she once again continued sleeping peacefully.

Seeing that Athrun smiled a bit, as he slowly turned his attention away from her, and up at the ceiling.

Where it didn't take long before a few familiar faces began running through his mind.

All of them people that had die in the last war, Yzak, La Flaga, the three M1 Astray girls, and many other friends that he knew was gone forever. Even after all this time he could still clearly remember, how sad many of the people he cared about had all been after the war had end.

So while he was laying there thinking about all of them, a deeply sad expression slowly came over his face, as he truly wonder why the hell Cagalli and he had to get mixed up in something as crazy as this.

The only thing the young man truly want to do, was to live a calm and peaceful life together with the one he loved.

But now he had once again been force it to a battle, where each of them had almost been kill, just because that damn mobile suit they end up in could badly walk straight.

"Damn, why did this have to happen while we where here?" The blue hair boy quietly asked himself, while again running his fingers through Cagalli's blond hair.

While thinking about why the hell they didn't just stay home, even true he already knew the answer, they where here because Cagalli had needed to talk with the Chairman about maintaining peace between Zaft and Orb.

That however didn't mean he was in a good mood about everything the two of them had been through, not long ago.

"The next time we go somewhere, I really do think we should take Dearka's advice and go to the beach instead" Athrun said, smiling slightly over the former Buster pilots joking around, when he heard that they where going up here, to have a good long talk with the new Chairman.

But once he had said the Cagalli had just rolled her eyes a single time, while telling the boy he was an idiot. After that she had immediately ran of not hearing Dearka said anything about how truly depressed the blond girl had made him, by calling him something like that.

It was just about the same time that Miriallia had told him to shut up, which much to Athrun's amazement he had actually done.

Finally after just laying there thinking about all of that he slowly moved his head down on the soft comfortable pillow, determined to just close his eyes just for a little bit.

But even as he was fighting so hard to stay awake, it didn't take many seconds before he slowly drifted of to sleep, finally giving in to the deep exhaustion he had felt since the red hair girl had left them alone in there.

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At the same time down in the ships hangar Shinn had just gotten out of the Impulse and was now flying slowly away from the gundam still with a deeply angry look on his face, ignoring whatever Vino and Lunamaria was trying to say to him.

He just kept on making his way towards the exit of the hangar, not showing the least bit interested in talking with any of the people that was looking after him.

Once he was out of sight Luna couldn't help but roll her eyes a single time. "He is just so childish sometimes!" the red hair mumbled, as she began making her way of to a small screen that was at the end of the hangar.

Now that all of the enemy was finally gone, it was properly best to tell the captain, everything about the Orb Chief Representative being on board.

And it was only a few minutes later before she was over there, where she immediately got in contact with the bridge. "Captain I got something very important to tell you, but there wasn't really any time for it before now!" Luna said in a serious tone.

Which made the brown hair woman, look away from the Chairman and over at her, with a slightly wondering expression on her face, that made it obvious that she was a bit curious about what the girl want to tell her.

"Ok Luna what's going on? All of us up here is a little busy right now, with trying to figure out what we are going to do now, so please make it quick!" Talia said in a loud tone, not once taking her eyes away from the only female pilot that was on board the Minerva.

Who immediately gave a quick nod to what she had just said, and after taking in a small breath the red hair girl began explaining.

It did however not take her long to tell them everything that had happened doing the battle.

"So what you are saying young lady, is that under the battle the Orb princess and her bodyguard, end up in a defected ZAKU, and while trying to escape from the battle, they end up here on the Minerva?" Gilbert asked, now also looking at the red haired pilot, that nodded a few times to his words.

"Yes that's right sir, we where all a bit surprised at first, when we saw two strangers inside the ZAKU, so they didn't really get the most warm reception, when they got down from the machine!" Luna said, trying her best to sound as respectful as possible.

It wasn't everyday that she got to talk with the Chairman of the Plants, and she truly didn't want to say anything wrong at a time like this.

He however just nodded a few times to her words, while getting a somewhat thoughtful expression on his face, as he slowly looked away from her and down at the floor, clearly thinking hard about what she had just said.

"So where are they now?" He finally asked, as he once again turned his brown eyes up towards her, waiting to hear just what the two unwilling passengers on the ship was doing right now.

Hearing him asked that, Lunamaria immediately began talking in the same tone as before.

"Well after finding out just who they where, I took them to an empty room and asked them to stay in there until the battle was over. So unless they didn't do what I said, they should still be there now. Not that I think they have gone anywhere, each of them was totally exhaust after everything that had happened!" the girl said, as she began thinking about the blue hair young man, she had meet not long ago.

Even with the blond hair girl so angry at her, she still couldn't help, but find her bodyguard very interesting.

And she really hoped, that she would get the opportunity, to get to know him better. But now that she was thinking about him, she began to wonder if she should tell who she thought the boy really was.

She did however not get the chance to say anything when the Chairman again began talking to her.

"Well you did the right thing miss Hawke, it's not like they choose to get messed up in all of this, so we need to make extra sure that they are comfortable while they are here" he said in a calm tone, while smiling warmly at the red hair girl.

Just as she once again looked up at him, clearly getting her mind away from whatever she had just been thinking about.

Seeing that, it didn't take long before he continued talking to the girl. "You can just leave them to me, I'll go down there and get them, once I'm finished talking with Talia about the three stolen mobile suits. So for now, I think all of you pilots should get some well deserved rest" he said, while finally turning his attention away from the red hair piloted, and back at the captain of the ship.

And it only took about a half minute, then the girl disappeared from the monitor. "I didn't think something like that was going to happen!" Talia said, clearly surprised about what Luna had just told them.

Gilbert on the other hand just smiled a bit at her, while thinking about if having the two of them on board was a small blessing in disguise, he was sure, that he could somehow use this to his own advantage.

He did however not really have the time to think about that now, they need to figure out just what they where going to do, with those not so nice people, that had left the area not long ago, with three of their new machines.

After that he slowly turned his attention back over on Talia and Arthur, that both looked like they where just waiting for him to get out of his thoughts, so they could continue their conversation.

"So any ideas about what we are going to do about Bogey One?" He asked, as he took a few glances between the man and woman, that was standing a bit in front of him.

It was only a minute after those words had left his mouth, that Arthur began talking in a loud tone.

"I do think we should go after them, they have to be taught a lesson, about who they are dealing with" the man said, still having a bit of trouble understanding how any of this could happen.

How could somebody so easily get past all of their tight security, and ran of with those three machines.

Hearing her second in command said something like that, Talia couldn't help but smile a bit. "I agree with Arthur on this, if those three where good enough to get all the way in to the colony. Then just imagine what else they could do, now that they have mobile suits like that!" the woman said, in a very serious tone.

Just as she saw Gilbert nod a few times to everything she had just said.

After that he smiled a bit at them. "I guess we all agree on what we need to do then, so the only thing left now is to find out where they are heading!" The Chairman said, a tiny bit curious about what Talia had to say now.

"Well the way I see it is that they might have gotten away for now, but I think that it's very likely that they expect us to follow them, so if we are just a bit lucky, the ship may actually be waiting for us, the question now is where could that be?" Talia asked, with a look on her face that made it clear, that she was thinking very hard about her own question, as she looked up at the map that showed everything that was in that direction, the ship most likely had disappeared in.

And it only took a few small minutes before her eyes land on something that took a bit more of her attention. Which made an even more thoughtful look come over both of her eyes, as she tried her best to think like the captain of the ship they where searching for.

"Please do tell, what's on your mind Talia" Gilbert said, while looking the beautiful captain over, truly wondering what she was thinking about at this very moment.

Hearing that, Talia immediately snapped straight out of her deep thoughts, and looked back at the two men.

"Ohh sorry about that I was far away there for a minute. But never mind that, if they really did take of in the direction we think they did, then the only place they can be is here. If you try and think about it from their point of view, then this really is the only place where they can set up an ambush for us!" the captain explained, while pointing at a certain spot on the map.

Seeing just where she was pointing and realizing the logic of her words, Gilbert couldn't help but smile a bit at her, as he slowly stood up from the chair, he had been sitting in this entire time he had been up there.

"Good work Talia, now if you will excuse me, I do think I have kept my two guests waiting long enough. But will you please call me up here, once we catch up to Bogey One. I am a bit curious about seeing, this ship and her crew doing battle, against an opponent like that" he explained.

Just before he turned around, and slowly left the bridge.

With Talia calling out after him, that it would most likely take some time before they would be able to locate that ship, but once they did she would make sure to tell him about it immediately.

"Thank you Talia, I'm happy to hear that!" he said, while he opened the door to the bridge and disappeared from the room, with the brown hair woman looking after him.

Once he was out of sight, Talia walked slowly over and sat down in her chair, where she immediately let out a deep sigh. "He is never going to change" she quietly said to herself.

Just before she yelled out for her crew, to get the Minerva under way, and that they had a certain blue space ship to find.

Hearing the captain say that, it did not take much time, before the grey space ship was flying full speed away from the area. "Do you really think, we can find them captain?" Arthur asked, while looking a bit curious over at the captain.

But she on the other hand just looked at him for a few seconds, before she slowly shook her head.

"I don't know Arthur, that ship can after all use Mirage Colloid, and that will make finding them so much harder, there is just no telling where they could be hiding" she explained.

While looking out of the window, with a thoughtful look in both of her eyes, as tried to come up with a strategy to defeat a ship like that.

Seeing the thoughtful expression on her face, Arthur decide that it was properly best to leave the woman alone for now, he really didn't want to disturb her, while she was obviously thinking very hard about something.

So after looking at her a bit longer, he slowly walked over and got down in to his own seat, where he closed his eyes for a few seconds, enjoying the deep silence that was on the bridge right now.

000000

At the same time Gilbert was slowly making his way down the Minerva's halls heading for the room where the ships two extra passengers was suppose to be.

And it didn't take long for the black hair man to arrive at his destination.

He did however not enter the room, he just kept standing there for a few minor seconds, thinking about what he was going to say to them. He knew that somehow he had to win the respect of the young man in there, if he could do that it might be the most easy way to get him to join Zaft again.

And if that happened, Gilbert knew that he would get a truly great mobile suit pilot under his control, one he was sure could be put to very good use.

But getting the boy to join Zaft again could be a hard task, seeing as he quite obvious had very strong feelings, towards the blond girl that was with him inside the room. But perhaps he could find someway to break them apart, it could be a somewhat interesting small challenge.

That however made him think about if there was anything he could use the blond princess for, she was after all Kira Yamato's sister.

So just maybe she could be used in a somewhat creative way to get rid of the brown hair boy, but even as those thoughts was running through his head, the black haired man knew he was thinking to far ahead.

"Let's just concentrate on getting a new mobile suit pilot for now, then later I can think about what I am going to do with the girl" he whispered quietly to himself, as the slightly sadistic smile on his face slowly disappeared.

Which made him take a single step forward, where he immediately reached out and knocked softly on the door.

It did however surprise him a bit, when there was no kind of response from in there.

So after waiting a bit more he once again knocked on the door this time a slightly bit harder then before, but this time wasn't much different, there was still no sign of life from inside the room.

And he seriously didn't have all day to just stand around here like this, so after a few short minutes had gone by, he made the decision that he might as well just go in there, and see what the two teens was doing.

Once he got in there a small frown ran over his forehead, the sight of the two of them sleeping beside each other, didn't really make him happy. He did after all have some plans for Athrun's unique abilities, and as long as he was dating the Orb princess, they couldn't be used as well as they should.

Yet he could always think about that later.

And with those thought in mind, he slowly stepped over beside the two sleeping teenagers, where he immediately reached down and gave Athrun's shoulder a small push, trying to wake the boy up without making to much noise.

And it really didn't take much time, before a pair of green eyes slowly flew open and looked up at him.

"I'm sorry to wake you Alex, but I thought that the two of you would like to know that the battle is over!" Gilbert explained, while smiling a bit at the boy.

Hearing that and realizing just where the heck he and Cagalli was, it only took him a few short seconds to remove the blond girl from his chest and sit up on the bed, where he immediately reached up and slowly rub both of his eyes, trying to get some of the tiredness out of them.

And after using about a half minute on that he again lifted his head and looked over at the man.

"I guess the two of us fell asleep, I'm very sorry about that Mr Chairman" Athrun said, doing his best to not let out a big tired yawn, he seriously did not want to give the Zaft leader that impression that he was ready to go right back to sleep.

And truth be told he was a bit curious about finding out, just what the man wanted.

Just one look at his face was more then enough for Athrun to realize that the man had something he want to asked them.

Once those few words of a apologize had left the blue hair teenager's mouth Gilbert couldn't help but smile a bit at the boy, before he began talking in a somewhat calm tone.

"It's quite all right Alex, I'm not really that surprised that the two of you are exhausted after everything you have been through. But now that both of you have gotten a bit of rest, I was wondering if the two of you would like a trip around the Minerva, that way you might get a small picture of what the ship can do in battle!" Gilbert said, as he moved over and sat down on the small chair that was in the room.

Looking a bit more of the man, Athrun slowly turned his attention away from the man and down at the still sleeping girl.

"That does sound very interesting, but first I need to wake her up, so if it's all right with you could you please wait a few minutes longer, then I believe we should be ready to go!" Athrun explained.

Before he reached down and gently shook Cagalli, truly hoping that she wouldn't be so hard to wake up as usual.

But it did end up taking almost five minutes before her eyes was slowly open, where she took a small look up at him. "I don't want to get up yet Athrun, I want to sleep just a bit longer" she said while rolling over on the bed, making it so that her back was turned towards him.

Seeing that, Athrun slowly shook his head, this was far from the first time he had seen that sight, she did that almost every single time he had to wake her up.

He did however know a few tricks to wake her up faster, but there was just no way he could use those, as long as the Zaft Chairman was in there.

"Cagalli wake up! Have you forgotten where we are?" Athrun asked, as he took a small glance over at the Chairman that was now smiling a bit at how much trouble the young man was having getting the Chief Representative out of the bed.

She however just mutter something in a loud annoyed tone, that sounded very much like she didn't care and that she wanted to continue sleeping.

Hearing the blond proud girl said something like that, Gilbert let out a small laugh, that immediately made Athrun look over at him.

"Is she always that difficult to get up in the morning?" The black hair man asked.

Not doing a single thing to hide, just how amusing he found this whole scene, he would never had thought that the Orb princess was that determined, to get just a few extra minutes of sleep in the morning.

So after looking a few seconds at the man Athrun couldn't help but let out a small sigh at his girlfriend's sleeping habits, as he once again turned his attention back at her.

"Pretty much, she isn't really a morning person, especially if there is a lot of work that needs to be done!" Athrun explained, as he once again reached down to shake the girl, this time she did open her tired eyes a bit, and turned them up towards him, obviously asking why he was waking her up.

Seeing that Athrun hurried gave her a hard shove, making sure that she wouldn't go back to sleep again.

If that happened he knew that it would be almost impossible, to get her to wake up. "Cagalli I know you are exhaust, but I don't really think this is the right time for you to be sleeping, especially when the Chairman would most likely want to talk with you!" the blue hair man said, making absolutely sure that she didn't get a single moment of peace.

Not that he had to worry about her drifting of again.

Once she heard that the Chairman want to talk with her, it didn't take long for her tired mind, to remind her just where exactly they where.

Which meant that it didn't even take a minute, before she was sitting up on the bed, where her two eyes immediately flew over to the other person in there together with her and Athrun.

But what actually surprised her a bit, was that he seriously didn't look like he had anything against, that she had been sleeping so hard, when he came down here to get them. He just kept on sitting there smiling kindly at her.

"Good morning, I hope you slept well, and that the beds here on the Minerva, was to your liking?" The black hair man asked, while slowly getting up from the chair he had been sitting on, almost ever since he had enter this room.

Looking at him for a few seconds, the blond hair girl slowly stretch both of her arms up over her head, as she nodded a single time to his question.

Even true a part of her did feel slightly embarrassed, when she realize how much complaining she had done, when Athrun had first tried to wake her up.

She truly disliked the idea that somebody she didn't know all that well, had seen her act like that.

But the Chairman actually didn't seem to mind it all that much, he just kept standing there smiling at the two of them.

"So now that you are well rested princess, your friend Alex here showed a bit of interest in getting a tour on the Minerva, do you want to have a look around too?" Gilbert asked, not once taking his eyes away from the blond girl, that just took a small glance over at her boyfriend.

Before she gave him a reply, by nodding a few times.

Seeing that the girl also want a look around the ship Gilbert turned away from them and began flying over to the door.

"Ok then lets get going. I'm sure that the both of you will find the Minerva to be a very impressive ship!" the man said, while taking a short glance back at the two teens to see their facial expression.

The boy did seem like he was looking forward to this, but the girl had a somewhat unreadable look over her face. Which made Gilbert wonder, just what exactly the young woman was thinking so hard about.

He did on the other hand not get any time to try and figure it out, before the three of them exited the room, where he immediately began leading them down the hall explaining a few things about the ship that made it the most powerful Zaft ship ever.

But it was only half of his audience that was really listening, Cagalli was just so far away in her own thoughts that she only caught a few things of what the man said.

Athrun on the other hand was listening to every word the man said, he just couldn't help but be impressed, when the man told him a few of the things the ship could do.

It really did sound like this ship could handle almost any opponent it came across.

That alone made a very interesting question enter Athrun's mind, and now that there was a small break in the man's talking, the blue hair boy immediately used the opportunity to get his question out.

"Just how many mobile suits can this ship have on board?" The boy asked as he took a quick look around the Minerva's halls, trying to take in every single thing.

The ship was after all quite big, and he really didn't want to lose his way on it, while Cagalli and he was forced to stay on board.

But if somebody asked him at this exact moment, he wouldn't hesitate a second in telling them, that he truly want to get of Minerva as quickly as possible.

Looking a bit at the young man, Gilbert smiled a bit at him. "So you want to see the hangar Alex? Hmm I guess that's understandable, the two of you didn't really get all that much time to look around down there, and I myself would actually like to see how our pilots are doing" Gilbert explained, not once moving his attention from the blue hair teenager.

Thinking a bit about what the man had just asked, Athrun took a small glance over at Cagalli.

He truly didn't like it when she was this quiet, he had been certain that there had been more then a few things, she want to say to the Chairman.

But up until now, she seemed to be quite far away in her own world.

Which did make Athrun wonder what she could be thinking about. But seeing as she didn't care where the three of them went on the ship, they might as well get a good look at the hangar.

So after looking at her for a few seconds more, he again turn his gaze over at the Chairman, where he nodded slowly a single time.

"The two of us would like very much to see the hangar Mr Chairman!" Athrun said, as he quickly reached over and grabbed on to Cagalli's left hand, just to make sure that she wasn't left behind, when they finally continued on to their next destination.

"Ok if that's the case, then please follow me, we are not really that far away from the hangar, so it shouldn't take us long to get down there" Gilbert explained, just as he turned away from the two teenagers, and continued down the hall.

Now with a small smile on his face, it really pleased him to know that the boy want to see more of the Minerva.

It may only be a small step, but by showing of something like that he was sure that he could win at least a bit of the boy's trusted.

It wasn't long after that before they arrived at the hangar.

Where the first things Athrun's and Cagalli's eyes land on was the four mobile suits at the end of the hangar, it was quite obvious that they where slowly being made ready for combat.

Seeing as there was a great deal of mechanics over by the machines, each of them working hard on them.

And just the knowledge that something was going to happen soon was enough to make a deep angry frown ran over Athrun's face, as he looked away from the four mobile suits and back at the Chairman.

"So this ship is going in to battle again huh?" The boy asked, while giving the black hair man that standing just behind Cagalli and him, a slightly angry glare.

Just to let him know, that he was far from happy about where all of this was going.

Hearing the boy ask that, Gilbert got a somewhat depressed expression on his face. "We don't really have much of a choice, we have to get those three mobile suits back, before the people that has them now, can learn to use them to their full capability" the man said.

Before he slowly turning his attention away from the two teens, and down at the four mobile suits, now with a far away expression on his face.

But he didn't get much time in his own thoughts, before somebody began talking to him in a somewhat angry tone, that immediately made him look over at the blond girl that had been pretty quiet up until now.

"Why did you build them, did Zaft really have a need for something like that?" She asked, while glaring a bit coldly at the black hair man.

Seeing the dark look she was sending him, the Chairman turned and looked up at the ceiling obviously thinking quite hard about what she had just asked him.

But as he again moved his eyes back to the girl, and was about to give her an reply, somebody else cut in.

"HA! You Athha's are all the same, so damn stupid, that you don't understand anything that goes on in the world, the reason those gundams was build, was so they could be used to protect the Plants!" Shinn said, from where he had been listening to their conversation.

Hearing those words being yelled, Cagalli immediately turned her angry eyes away from Durandal, and over at the person with dark hair and cold red eyes.

That was sending her a glare, that she had no doubt would kill her if eyes could actually do such a thing. But after feeling a light shiver ran down her spine, she gave the boy the same kind of look back, before she began talking to him in a very angry tone.

"Yeah, and all of us here saw just how well they did that, do you guys even have the slightest idea about how many people where killed, because of those things?!"

She said back making sure not to break eye contact with the boy, which was much harder then she had first thought, seeing as this guy was apparently an expert in giving people a deadly look.

Not happy that she was talking back to him, Shinn looked even more hatefully at the girl, a part of him truly yelling loudly to run over there and show her a thing or two about how weak and pitiful she and the rest of the Athha's was.

But seeing as she was a guest on board the ship, he couldn't do something like that, he could on the other hand talk back to her.

"And why do you care, it's not like they had anything to do with you, the only things you Athha's really cares about is yourself. All of you showed that in the last war, by trying to stay neutral. If only Orb had joined up with the Alliance, my whole family would still be alive, they where killed by your father girl!" Shinn said, enjoying the somewhat shocked look on the blond girls face.

Hearing the dark hair boy blaming her father for killing his family, Cagalli didn't know what to say back she just stood there a few seconds with wide eyes.

Trying her best to get out some kind of reply to what the boy had just said.

But just as she open her mouth, a familiar person moved over and place a hand on Shinn's shoulder, which immediately made him turn around to see who was interrupting him.

Nicol however didn't say a thing, when Shinn's two cold eyes was turned towards him.

"Shinn, I have no trouble understanding why you are so angry and depressed over losing your family. But I don't believe you should blame miss Cagalli or her father, it's not like any of them pulled the trigger, it was the Alliance who killed them and that's it!" Nicol said, truly a bit angry at the boy for saying something like that to the blond girl.

Looking a bit at his green hair friend Shinn tried hard to come up with something to say back.

But after a few minutes he turned away and began making his way over to the red ZAKU, determined to help Luna look the mobile suit over.

Once the angry boy was out of sight, Nicol turned and looked back at Cagalli where he gave her a small smile.

"I'm sorry about that miss Cagalli, he isn't really that good at controlling his temper" the green hair boy explained.

While taking a small glance back at Shinn, where he could see that the boy was busy talking with Luna about something, most likely complaining about Cagalli and his interference, not that Nicol cared much about that.

Yet as he stood there looking after Shinn.

Cagalli took the opportunity to slowly look him over, he had really change a lot, since the last time she and Athrun had seen him. He was slightly more muscular now, and his green hair had grown quite long, and was now reaching far down his back.

But even with all the many changes, there was one small thing she noticed, that still looked the same, his brown eyes still had that caring look in them.

So after watching him a bit longer, Cagalli slowly moved in and placed both of her arms around the boy, pulling him in a gentle hug.

"It's good to see you again Nicol, all of us have really missed you!" the girl told him in a truly happy tone, as she gave his right cheek a gentle kiss, before she slowly backed away, giving Athrun the opportunity to step in and give his long time friend a hug too.

"Cagalli's right Nicol, it really has been a long time since we heard anything from you, how have you been doing the last two years?" Athrun laughed loudly, while he gave his old team mate a friendly slap on his back.

Before he moved away and looked at his friend, with a big grin on his face, truly happy to see the other boy once more, a small part of him had actually thought that they would never see Nicol again, after the last war had been brought to a hold.

Looking a few times between them, Nicol couldn't avoid seeing the happy expression both of them now had on their faces.

And just the sight of them smiling at him like that, was more then enough to make a small grin ran over his face.

"It is nice to see you guys too, I really have missed you, the last two years" Nicol said, while taking a quick glance back at his mobile suit, to see if the mechanics still back there, need his help with something.

Yet everything did seem all right at the moment, happy to know that he still had some time to talk with his two old friends.

He once again turned his attention back towards them. "So how have the two of you been doing? Are you still going out?" He asked sounding somewhat curious.

Yet as he saw the two of them take a brief glance over at each other and the slightly red glow Cagalli had on her face he knew the answer to his question.

Which made him grin a bit at each of them. "I'm truly glad to know that, the two of you really does deserve to be happy, by the way how are the married couple and Dearka and Miriallia doing? It's been a very long time since I last saw them" Nicol said while taking yet another small glance back at his yellow GOUF.

Not that there was anything back there for him to worry about, it was obvious that his machine was ready to head out at any time now.

Studying him for a minute or two, Athrun smiled a bit as he thought about what Nicol had just asked. But before he could even open his mouth, Cagalli began telling him what she honesty thought about the two couples.

"Kira and Lacus are more happy together then they have ever been before, it can be a bit annoying at times, it's almost like you need a crowbar to get them apart!" Cagalli said in a loud tone, which could be heard all over the hangar.

Hearing his girlfriend say something like that, Athrun couldn't help but roll his eyes a single time.

"Don't believe her Nicol, she is exaggerating the truth is that Kira and Lacus a very happy together, the same with Miriallia and Dearka!" the blue hair teen explained, with a small grin on his face.

"I'm not exaggerating Athrun they really are impossible to get apart some times!" Cagalli said loudly, obviously feeling a bit insulted about what her boyfriend had just said.

Yet the slightly angry glare she was now sending him, only served to make Athrun roll his eyes one more time.

But unfortunately Cagalli saw him do it this time, which of course made the deep frown on her forehead get a little bigger, as she quickly folded her arms and turned her back towards him.

Where she immediately let out a somewhat unhappy sound, while muttering something about Athrun sleeping out in the garden, once they got back to Orb.

Which made Nicol laugh slightly. "The two of you really haven't chance much!" he said, while using left hand to try and cover up his laughter, but he didn't really have much luck with that.

Seeing as both Athrun and Cagalli was now looking over at him, both of them clearly trying to figure out why this was so funny.

And just the sight of their confused expressions, was more then enough to make the green hair boy laugh even louder then before.

"Not to interrupted you Nicol, but why is this so funny?" Athrun asked sounding a bit puzzle, truth be told he honestly didn't understand, why listening to Cagalli and him quarrel with each other about Kira and Lacus relationship was that funny.

But even after Athrun had asked him that, the former Blitz pilot didn't stop laughing. It took him a few short minutes, before he finally need to get some air down in his lungs.

So after taking a few deep breaths, he once again turn his brown eyes over towards the two people, that was standing in front of him.

"The reason why I'm laughing, is because the two of you are just as I remember you from back on the Archangel!" Nicol explained in a happy tone, while giving both of them a caring smile, that made the two of them take a small look over at each other.

Both of them wondering if Nicol was right about what he had just told them.

But before either of them could get much time to think it through the Chairman stepped over beside them, with a serious look on his face, while the three of them had been talking loudly with each other.

He had been having a very interesting conversation with Rey, that was at this very moment was making his way back to his white mobile suit, that was standing at the end of the hangar.

"I'm truly sorry to interrupted your little reunion, but I just got informed by the bridge crew, that we are hastily approaching our destination, and that they would like for us to join them up on the bridge" the man explained.

While taking a few short looks between them, waiting patiently to hear what they had to say about what he had just told them.

And he did not have to wait all that long, before Nicol began talking in a slightly determined tone.

"Then that means I have to go now, I really do hope that we will get a little more time to talk later!" the boy said, smiling a bit at them.

Before he hurried turned around, and began heading back to his yellow machine, that was just waiting for him to get inside, once there it did not take long before the cockpit flew shut after him.

Once he was out of sight Gilbert looked back at the two other teens.

"Well then, would you please follow me to the bridge?" He asked, as he turned around and flew slowly away from them, not really giving the teens enough time to think up a reply to what he had just asked them.

So in the end both Cagalli and Athrun could only take a small glance over at each other, before they hurried took of after the man, it wasn't like he had giving them many other opportunities then to follow him.

And it only took a couple of minutes before they reached the Minerva's bridge.

They hadn't even gotten over to their sits, when one of the crew members began talking in a loud tone.

"We spotted Bogey One just ahead of us captain, it doesn't seem like they have noticed us yet!" the man to right of Talia said, not once taking his eyes away from the controls in front of him.

Hearing that Talia immediately yelled out for the ship to maintain present course, and to make sure that all of the mobile suits was made ready to launch at any minute now.

Once that was done she took a look out at the ship ahead of them. But even as they kept getting close and close to the blue space ship, it just kept flying like it didn't care one bit about their present in the area.

Which made a confused look ran over Talia's face, why didn't they do something, where they really planing to just let them fly up beside them.

If they did something like that, Talia was certain that they would have no trouble at all over powering the blue ship.

But there was just no way it could be that easy, what the hell where they up to, yet even as the brown hair captain was doing her best to try and figure out what Bogey One was doing.

Gilbert suddenly began speaking to their the two guests, in a slightly curious tone.

"I most confess, I do find Bogey One to be a very interesting ship, but I do actually wonder what exactly the ship's name really are. It has to have a real name not just something Talia over there made up. So please do tell me Alex what would you call a ship like that, or would you rather that I call you Athrun now?" The man asked, smiling a bit at the shocked look on both of the teens faces.

It did however not take long before Cagalli got over her shock where she immediately began talking loudly, hoping that she could somehow convince the Chairman that Athrun wasn't who he thought he was.

"But Mr Chairman he....is....not!" that was however all she got out.

Before the black hair man slowly shook his head, while he began speaking to her in a reassuring tone, that made both Athrun and Cagalli visibly relax.

"You don't have to worry miss Cagalli, I just want to make sure that when I'm having a conversation with him, that I'm not speaking to some kind of fake person, I would much rather talk with the real him. I'm sure both of you can understand that" Gilbert said, as he turned his attention away from them and back out at the blue space ship.

That still pretty much acting like it was no big deal, that they where getting so close to it.

And seeing that there was still no movement from the enemy ship, Arthur broke the deep silence, and asked what in the world they where doing, but before anybody could come up with an answer to his question.

Meyrin yelled out something, that was more then enough to make all of them look over at her. "Captain! we got five mobile suits and a single mobile armor coming in fast from behind!" the red hair girl yelled.

And even before she had finished the sentence, a few smaller explosion shook the entire ship, clearly indicating to the crew that they where already under attack.

"Hurry and get all the mobile suits out there, and aim the Tannhauser at Bogey One, we are taking that thing down, before it can make any more problems for us!" the woman loudly, as the crew immediately began carrying out her orders, getting the ship ready to fired the main cannon.

But just as the ship was at the right angle and was about to fire, Bogey One disappeared again.

Seeing that Talia couldn't help but let out a light curse. "That damn Mirage Colloid is getting on my nerves!" she said, not really noticing that a few of the people up there was actually nodding a few times in agreement.

They did however not have any more time to debate the blue space ship, when all of a sudden another attack made the Minerva shake violently.

Which it actually did for several minutes, but once it finally stopped Talia quickly turned her attention over on Meyrin and was just about to ask the red hair teenager, why their own mobile suits wasn't out there yet, but just as those words was about to leave her mouth.

Nicol called out that he was heading out, and once the yellow GOUF was gone, it didn't even take a minute before Luna and Rey was out there too.

After that the Core Splendor left the ship, which meant that it did not take long before the Impulse was assemble, and fully equipped with the Blast Silhouette.

And with that, it was only a matter of a few seconds, before a heated battle was going on right outside the Minerva.

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At the same time inside the Impulse, Shinn hurried evade in and out between all of the beams the Chaos' and the mobile armors gunbarrels was firing at him.

But even as he was doing that, he took a quick glance over at the Minerva, where he saw the ship take yet another hit from the Abyss, seeing that the boy couldn't help but narrow his eyes a bit.

"Somebody take out the Abyss, all it's doing is attacking the Minerva!" He yelled out in a angry tone, as he ducked under another rain of beams from the gundam and mobile armor, which made him end up behind the two machines.

Seeing that he didn't waste any time, in shooting of the two long-range beam cannons after the green gundam, that to avoid the attack, by transforming over in to it's mobile armor mode, where it quickly rolled to the side and away from the two shoots.

Notice that happening, Shinn hurried took aim after the machine one more time, and again fired of the two beam cannons, not having any more luck hitting the green gundamt this time.

Yet as he was about to attack it one more time, he was forced to evade over two of the gunbarrels, from that irritating purple mobile armor, he had first meet back at Armory One.

But once he was safely away from the attacks he quickly turned, and tried to take the damn thing out, before it could get too far away from him.

Unfortunately he did not have enough time to fire even one of the Impulse's many weapons, before he saw the Chaos coming right at him, now with one of it's beam sabers out and ready to strike.

And once he realized, that the green gundam was trying to get him in to close combat.

The boy got a determined look on his face, while he hurried pulled out the beam javelin, and took of to meet the Chaos mid way, making sure that he was the one to assault the other mobile suit first, by slamming the close range weapon out after the Chaos.

But just before he could hit the enemy, it got it's own beam weapon up to counterattack, which of course meant that now the two gundams was in a lock both of them struggling hard to over power each other.

It was only when the Chaos tried to hit him with one of the beam blades, it had on it's feet that he backed away from it.

The two of them however didn't stay separated for long, before they once more slammed their beam weapons together.

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And while Shinn was having the time of his life fighting with the Chaos gundam.

Luna had just taken out one of the Daggers, when she heard the Impulse pilot call out for someone to take care of the Abyss.

Which made her turn and look over at the blue gundam, just as she saw it evade in between an attack from the Minerva, only to shoot off properly all the weapons it had.

Seeing that the girl got an angry look on her face, as she hurried aimed her giant beam cannon after the blue mobile suit, determined to at least try and make a nice little hole through the Abyss' cockpit.

But it quickly became clear to the red hair girl, that hitting the mobile suit from this distance, was much harder then she had first thought, the Abyss didn't stay still even for a minute.

"Damn, why can't you just stop moving around so much?!" She asked loudly, while slowly moving the cannon up to just the right angle, so she was aiming directly at the back of the Abyss.

But before the red hair girl could press down on the trigger, an alarm began sounding loudly inside her mobile suit.

Which of course immediately made her turn around, where she saw the Gaia coming right at her with one of it's beam sabers out, obviously planing to use the damn thing to do a few nasty looking thing to her mobile suit.

But there was just no way that bastard, inside the gundam was going to get away with something like that so easily.

So after getting over the first strike, she quickly flew full speed away from the machine, where she turned and shoot of the beam cannon down at the Gaia, that flew straight over the shoot, while still heading right for her.

But that just made Luna fire of the cannon one more time, which made the Gaia evade quickly side, so the big red beam flew right past the black gundam and hit something else instead.

Not that Luna saw what it was, she was already far to busy trying to keep at least a little distance between herself and the Gaia gundam, that was trying pretty much everything possible to get close enough to tear her ZAKU apart.

Which was definitely not something Luna would allow the bastard to do, the red hair girl was completely determined to show this damn thief that she was not going down, as easy as all the other people this bastard had been fighting before.

It did however quickly became obvious, that keeping the Gaia away was much harder then she had first expect.

And even true she had only been fighting with the gundam for a few minutes, she could already feel a few drops of sweat running slowly down her forehead.

But that just served to make the female ZAKU pilot all the more angry and keen on beating the crap out of the Gaia, that was fighting her in the same violent manner, she was fighting it.

Yet it quickly became clear for all that was watching them, that just one single mistake from either of the pilots.

Then one of them would most definitely be dead, neither one of the pilots giving each other any time to breath, or think about what they where doing next, everything was based completely on impulse.

Both pilots pulling of whatever move that just happened to enter their head, at the heat of the moment.

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Elsewhere not that far away from her Nicol had just finished cutting down the last of the Daggers, and was now taking a quick looking around for something else to fight, when he saw Shinn fighting ferociously with the Chaos.

And just one small look at the two giant combatants, was more then enough to tell the green hair GOUF piloted, that Shinn did not require his help.

So after making certain that the Impulse was doing all right against the Chaos, he continued looking around after another target.

And it only took a few short seconds, before both of his eyes land on the purple mobile armor that was obviously trying to get under the Minerva, so it could attack the ship from below.

And seeing that everybody else was busy fighting with the three gundams.

Nicol quickly got the GOUF moving and charge full speed after the purple machine, before it could do any serious damage to the grey space ship.

And once he was close enough to his target he immediately began shooting of the beam gun at the armor.

That just rolled to the side, where the four barrels flew away from the machine and flew of directly towards him, where they of course began shooting at him like there was no tomorrow.

But the attack wasn't really all that unexpected, so Nicol hurried dropped down under the first attack from the barrels and once he was behind them he hurried throw the whip up around the nears one, where a giant electrical shock flew from the weapon and in to the barrel making it blow up.

After that, he quickly evade to the side, seeing as the mobile armor was once again heading right for him.

This time a bit more cautious in it's attacks, which forced Nicol to concentrate a bit more on his defenses then his attacks.

But that did far from mean, he was giving his opponent an easy time, he made sure to attack the enemy machine every single time he saw an opening, not that there was many of them, whoever the guy inside the mobile armor was.

Nicol had very little doubt, that this person was a brilliant pilot, and he could now better understand why Shinn had been complaining so much about this guy.

He was piloting that thing, like he had almost been raised to pilot that machine.

Unfortunately he did not get much time to think about that, as he was once again forced to get out the three hasty approaching barrels way, nearly avoiding being shear to piece by their beam cutters.

He did however not get any time to breath after that attack, because by now the armor itself was heading right for him shooting of both of the cannons that was on the front of the machine, this time hitting his GOUF's right leg, doing some very serious damage to it.

That however, did not stop Nicol from pulling out the beam sword, and head straight of after the mobile armor, where he tried his best to cut it in two.

But before he could get any closer to the purple machine, the last three Gunbarrels dropped down in front of him where they immediately began shooting at him with every weapon they had.

And it didn't take long, before the boy had all of his attention turned towards avoiding every single attack from them.

Which proved more and more to be a real challenge, this guy just didn't back down at all, he kept on attack no matter what.

"Damn it!" the boy finally yelled out loudly, as he again evade in between a few shoots from the armor and barrels, while using the beam gun to drive the machine a bit away from him, where he immediately throw the whip out towards the mobile armor.

This time it actually seemed like the weapon was going to hit, but just as the whip was about to wrap itself around the purple war machine.

One of the barrels flew straight in to the whip where it immediately blow up, seeing that happening Nicol took a short glance out after the mobile armor that was now heading full speed away from him.

And even true he was feeling a bit relieved, that he now had one less Gunbarrel to worry about, he was also a bit frustrated by the way the whip had just been destroyed.

And he truly wonder just what in the world this guy was thinking.

Yet even as those thoughts was running through his head, the green hair boy narrowed his eyes a bit and took of directly towards the mobile armor, that was at this very moment coming straight at him.

And it didn't even take a minute before the two machines was fighting each other with everything they got.

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At the same time in the Abyss, Auel had been having a blast making a great deal of damage on the space ship.

And he was even at this very moment, hastily approaching the Minerva from above, with a small confident smirk on his face. This time he was surely going to make space dust out of a few of the ships weapons, that way he and his pals would have a much easy time destroying the ship.

But just as he took aim with all of his mobile suits weapons, and was about to do give the ship a truly serious ass kicking.

He was interrupted when two green beams came flying at him, he hurried evade both of them, then turned and saw a white ZAKU heading straight at him, he didn't even have time to blink, before it pulled out a beam tomahawk and throw it directly at him.

The weapon however didn't even get near him, as he hurried knocked it away with the lance, and was just about to take of after the little pest, when it suddenly fired of a great deal of missiles at him.

Seeing that, he hurried began shooting widely taking all of them down before any of them could hit him, which of course made a few minor explosion spread out all the way around him.

That however did not stop him from trying to find the Zaft mobile suit, he quickly looked around all over the place, trying his best to capture just a small glint of the already doomed bastard.

Yet he didn't really have to search all that long, before something gave the Abyss a very hard kick from behind, sending his blue machine spinning around a few times.

And just as he got it to a hold and looked up at the ZAKU, two shoots left it's beam rifle, and slammed directly in to the Abyss' chest a few minor seconds later.

"Damn you, just for that I'm going to send you on a one way trip to hell!" he yelled loudly with a wicked look all over his face, while shooting of ever single weapon the Abyss in the direction of the white mobile suit, not even bothering to take the necessary time to aim properly.

Which of course meant, that the ZAKU didn't have many problems, evading the attacks.

Not that Auel cared much about that he was already heading full speed towards the enemy machine, with the lance out, ready to make mince meat out of the white ZAKU, he might still be angry as hell right now.

But even with that, he could still clearly remember that at the begin of this battle. That the moron he was fighting, had thrown away the one close combat weapon he had.

And that could only mean that he had nothing to fight back with, if Auel could get him in to a fight like that.

It did however quickly became obvious to him that getting in such close range of the ZAKU was a much more difficult task then he had first expect.

No matter what he did the guy would somehow find away to keep the long distance between them, shooting of the damn beam rifle the entire time not even hitting him once.

But for some reason it still annoyed him greatly, it was like this guy did everything possible to provoke him, which of course made Auel all the more determined to kill the bastard.

And it didn't take long before he gave up on the idea of fighting this guy in close combat and began shooting after him with whatever weapon that was ready to be used.

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Meanwhile back inside the Minerva, to be more exact on the ships bridge the entire crew watched as Bogey One became visible in between few destroyed space ship.

Seeing that Talia immediately yelled out for them to get moving again, and get all of the ships weapons ready to attack the ship, before it could disappear one more time.

But unfortunately they hadn't really been flying for long, before Bogey One again activated it's Mirage Colloid.

"Ahhh damn, hold here and get ready to counterattack, they can begin shooting at us at any minute now!" the captain said, truly worried that Bogey One would start attacking her ship while still being invisible.

Yet even as she tried her best to find some kind of trace, that could tell her, just where exactly the enemy space ship was hiding itself.

There was nothing to see out there, which made a deep frown ran slowly over her forehead, where the heck could they be.

She seriously did not like this kind of hide and seek. "Can any of you see them out there somewhere?" She asked, as she again let her eyes ran over everything out there, and it was then she saw it one more time, now even further away from them.

Seeing that she immediately got a determined look all over her face. "Ok full speed ahead, we are taking them out right now!" She order, as the crew began working on what she had just told them to do.

But there was however one that was a bit thoughtful over all of this, the way the blue space ship was moving just seemed so strange for some reason.

It was like they where being lure into something, and it was just about the same time, that both of Athrun's eyes land on the few old ships out there. If they continued heading in this direction, the Minerva would surely end up in between them.

And immediately after that thought enter his mind, he realized what was going on.

Which made him jump up from his sit as quickly as possible. "NO STOP!......STOP! If we go over there we will all be dead!" he yelled loudly, as the entire crew looked back at him.

"What do you mean?" Arthur asked, just as confused as the rest of the crew, he really didn't understand why they would die if they kept heading for the Bogey One, there was nothing out other then the enemy ship that was a threat.

And there was no way, that ship could take down the Minerva that easy, the boy made it sound like that ship alone, was the most dangerous thing ever.

Talia however could easily tell by a single look at the boy that he was very serious about this. And when she took a short glance over at Gilbert, she saw him give her a small nod.

That made it clear to her, that he too would like very much to hear what the former Zaft soldier had to say. So while still keeping both of her eyes turned towards the teen, she order the Minerva to be stop it's approach.

"Ok please hurry up and tell us what's going on!" The brown hair captain said in a very loud tone, while taking another brief glance out at the Bogey One that was still visible, apparently not having anything better to do, then hang around out there not doing a thing.

Which finally made Talia realize that something strange was going on.

It was obvious that the ship wasn't waiting for it's machines to come back, seeing as they where all far too busy, fighting against the Minerva's mobile suits.

Which made the whole thing even more weird. "There is some kind of trap out there somewhere!" she said, getting everybody's attention over on her.

Where a single look at their face made it pretty obvious, that all of them would like for her to tell them, just what she was talking about. It was then that Athrun began talking in a somewhat far away tone.

As he walked over to the screen. "Try and take a look here at those three wreck up ships, it almost looks like they have been put there on purpose!" Athrun explained, as he slowly pointed at all three ships, that was place in such a way that if they had continued heading towards Bogey One, they would have end up right in between the three of them.

"Meyrin how much time did we use to catch up to Bogey One?" Talia asked, not once taking her eyes away from the wreck ships out there, while waiting impatient for the red hair girl to give her an answer to her question.

Luckily it did not take all that long, before Meyrin was done figuring out the answer to what the woman had asked her. "It took a bit over two hours for us to locate them here captain!" The red haired teen said.

While looking away from her controls and over at brown hair woman, wondering why exactly it had been so important for the captain to know how much time they had spend on looking for the enemy ship.

And seeing the thoughtful expression the captain now had on her face, only served to make Meyrin and the rest of the crew even more curious about knowing what was going on.

But before anybody could say anything to the captain she began talking in a angry tone. "That's more then enough time, to place some nasty surprises on the three ships out there!" the woman said, while taking a glance around at every ship out there.

Before a small smile ran over her lips. "Ok aim the Tristan at the ship furthest away from us, let's see just what kind of thing they left in there!" She said, just as both of the cannons was fired directly at the wreck space ship.

Where both beams flew straight through the hall of the ship, creating an enormous explosion, much more intense and destructive then a single attack from the Tristans could possibly do.

And just the sight of how powerful the explosion was made a shock look ran over all of their face, as each of them thought about what would have happened if the Minerva had been in between all three ships, they might have been lucky enough to survive the three explosions.

But there was no doubt, that if they had been caught in a trap like that, they would surely have lost a great deal of their weapons and defenses.

It did however not take long, before Talia got her thoughts back to the blue space ship, that had used itself to lure them towards their own death. Just the whole idea that they where willing to do something that crazy, was more then enough to make the woman very angry.

"Hurry up and take down the last two ships. Once they are out of our way, then get the Tannhauser ready, we are not going to allow that ship the chance to come up with any new tricks!" She said, keeping all of her attention turned towards the Bogey One.

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At exactly the same time outside, Neo narrowed his eyes a bit, as he watched the Minerva get rid of their three traps, he and the others had used their precious time to set up, now it had pretty much been a waste.

"Damn it, how the hell did they figure that out?" He quietly asked himself, while carefully evading another attack from the yellow mobile suit, he had been fighting all of this time.

And once there was a little distance between himself and the Zaft machine, he took a small look over to see how the three teenagers, was handling them self against the Minerva's forces, all of them seemed to be all right, at least for the moment.

But he knew that couldn't last, if they continued this battle much longer. It would only be a matter of time before their newly acquirer mobile suits, would began to run low on power.

Which meant that it was properly a very good idea to caught their time here short.

He did not want to risk losing one of the machines, in a battle this like this, so after dodging another attack from his opponent.

He hurried took of full speed away from the Zaft mobile suit, leaving the two Gunbarrels behind so he could use them to keep his new friend busy, while he and the others retreated from this area.

It only took him about a minute before he got over to where he could see Stella fighting with a red ZAKU, that seemed to be quite a hard task for the blond girl to take down. And if there wasn't the danger of the Gaia running out of power.

He would have found the sight, of Stella doing battle with this person very entertain.

So after watching them fight for a few seconds, he fired a single shoot after the red mobile suit, getting it to back away from the Gaia. And once he was sure that the mobile suit, was keeping it's distance, he began talking loudly out over the radio.

"Ok guys, we are getting out of here, we are not going to win this battle, now that the Minerva has avoid falling in to our little trap!" The mask man explained, while again shooting a few times after the ZAKU, that was testing it's luck by trying to get in range of the Gaia.

But when Stella joined his little game, of trying to put a few holes through the ZAKU, it immediately backed away from them again.

Seeing that her enemy was out of sight, Stella turned and looked over at the Exus.

"But Neo, I'm not done fighting with the bastard in the red mobile suit!" the blond haired girl whimpered loudly, while firing a few more shoots after the machine she had been fighting with almost since the start of the battle.

But none of the beams got anywhere near the ZAKU, that took cover behind a few piece of debris, where it fired of that big cannon back at them.

Yet neither Noe or Stella had much trouble avoiding the red coloured machines attacks.

But before any of them could began shooting back, Auel began yelling loudly over in the Abyss, clearly very unhappy about what Neo had just told them to do.

"I totally agree with Stella on this one Neo, I want to stay here and slaughter the bastard inside the white mobile suit. You have no idea about how irritating this damn fool is!" the boy said, while shooting a few beams in the direction of the ZAKU.

Which somewhat smoothly got under all of them, while it fired it's rifle back at him.

Hearing the two youngish of the teenagers complaining like that, Neo slowly rolled his eyes a single time under the mask, why the heck did both of them have to be so damn stubborn at a time like this.

"We are falling back end of discussion, if you guys continue fighting out here much longer the gundams will surely run out of power, and if that happens then you three wouldn't stand a chance against all the other mobile suits here!" The mask man said, as he evade another attack from the yellow machine, that a small part of him was begin to find very annoying.

But thankfully, he still had the two Gunbarrels, to distract the enemy pilot.

And while he was busy doing that, they all suddenly heard Sting's voice over from the Chaos.

"I think Neo's right you two, it's not like our machines have an endless supply of power. And I for one don't want to be take down here, before I have another chance to beat this guy!" The green hair boy yelled loudly, while he yet again slammed his beam saber out after the Impulse, that quickly backed away from him and fired of it's two beam cannons.

But Sting just flew down under them, as he flew full speed over to where he could see Neo and Stella fighting against two of the other Zaft mobile suits there, and it didn't take long before he was giving them a hand.

"Damn, I really hate running away!" He complained loudly, as he fire all the weapons on the Chaos after the yellow mobile suit, that hurried throw itself to the side to evade his attack.

Which made a small frown ran over his face, it was just about that time that the rest of the power left the Chaos, and it returned back to it's usual grey colour.

"Ahhh damn it to hell!" The teen mutter in a truly angry voice, as he made sure to stay close to Neo's mobile armor and the Gaia that apparently still had a little of it's power left.

While looking around to see if there was any of the enemy mobile suits that was trying to attack him, but they kept their distance thanks to Stella and Neo.

Seeing that Sting too was ready to get the hell out of there, Neo slowly turned his eyes over on the Abyss. "Ok Auel you can stay here, if that's what you really want, but the rest of us is leaving this place!" The mask man said, as he and the two other pilots turned around and flew of full speed towards the Girty Lue, abandoning the Abyss by itself.

Just the sight of his three comrades leaving like that, was more then enough to make Auel growl loudly inside his mobile suits cockpit.

"Damn it! I really hate that grey rust bucket of a ship!" He said, while taking one last glance over on the Minerva, before he turned and followed his three friends over to their own ship.

The four of them hadn't been flying for long, before they noticed that the Minerva and it's mobile suits was trying to catch up to them.

That however didn't worry Neo at all, he just smiled a bit as he got in contact with the Girty Lue.

"Ian hurry up and detonate the rest of our presents out there, that should be more then enough to stop them, we can't have them following us now!" The mask man order, with a small smile on his face.

And it didn't even take a minute before all the other things the had planted blow up, making sure that their pursuers couldn't get anywhere near them, for the next few minutes, which was more then enough time for the three gundams and the Exus to get on board the Girty Lue.

Once they where inside the ship, the Mirage Colloid was immediately activated, as the ship made a hasty retreat from the area.

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At the same time back on the Minerva.

Talia slowly opened her eyes again, the light from the last explosion had been so powerful, that it was almost blinding and she could see the rest of them up there opening their eyes too.

"Damn them, Meyrin where is Bogey One?!" The captain asked loudly, truly hoping that the insane crew of that blue ship, wasn't about to try something else after that crazy stunt they had just pulled.

But much to her frustration there was no sign of the ship. Which was enough for her to mutter out a few not so nice things about the enemy ship, as she thought about all the completely insane things that ship had done.

Since she and the rest of the Minerva's crew had first ran in to it, but as woman sat there with a deep frown on her face, and her mind busy thinking about Bogey One.

Gilbert suddenly began talking beside her. "Hm it looks like that ship slipped away from us one more time, so what are we going to do now Talia?" The man asked.

While looking straight in to her beautiful eyes, truly curious about hearing what the captain of the Minerva was planing to do now, he would also like very much to get those three gundams back.

But he did not want to lose the Minerva and the Impulse in process. If there was no chance for them to recapture the three stolen machines, with the limited number of mobile suits aboard the Minerva.

He would prefer that they thought hard about their next move, before they rush after that ship one more time.

But maybe if the ship got a few more really good pilots, they just might have better luck at some point in the future, and he already had a pretty good idea for another pilot that would fit in quite well on this ship.

There was just one tiny problem he need to do something about.

And even as those thoughts was running through his head, he turned and took a glance back at the blond hair girl and Athrun that was sitting just a little behind him, each of them seemed to be far away in their own thoughts at the moment.

He did however not look at them for long. before Talia began talking to him.

"I think the best we can do now is to get our pilots back on board, after everything that has happened today all of them got to be completely exhaust, and I'm pretty certain that the rest of the crew are just as tired. It really has been a long day for all of us, and if we don't get some rest now that we have the chance, we might end up getting seriously hurt, the next time we run in to that ship" Talia explained, using her right hand to rub her eyes a few times.

Thinking a few minutes about that, Gilbert nodded a few times in understanding.

"Hmm I guess you are right Talia, but you too should really get some sleep. I may find your tired expression adorable, but I don't really think it would be wise if you fall asleep in that chair. And it's obvious, that you are just as exhaust as the rest of us" the man said in a serious tone.

He really didn't want to see, the woman collapse because of exhaustion.

Looking a few seconds at him, Talia finally gave him a small nod.

It was just about the same time, that Athrun and Cagalli stood up, where the boy immediately began talking in a obviously tired tone.

"Well if it's all right with you, I think Cagalli and I will be going back to our room, the two of us are totally worn out!" he explained, while looking first a few seconds at Talia, before he turned his eyes over on the Chairman that was giving them a caring smile.

"Can you find your way back there on your own?" He asked in a friendly tone.

While looking directly at the two teenagers, that both nodded a few times, before they turned away and left the bridge without saying anything else, other then a small goodnight, that only about half of them heard.

Once they where gone, Talia turned her attention back towards Gilbert.

"That boy, really did help us out a lot in this battle!" She said, while thinking about how he had saved the ship from flying straight in to the trap Bogey One had made for them, if they really had gone in there, they would have ended up with more then just a few very exhaust pilots.

Hearing her said that, Gilbert nodded slowly in agreement and with a strange smile on his face.

"Yeah he did, he was after all a part of the Le Creuset team once!" The man said, now again thinking about how he could get Athrun to join Zaft again.

There really was many of the boys abilities he could use, but before he could give it any more through, the beautiful woman up there turned and asked him if he want to go get some dinner, which he of course said yes too.

And it wasn't really long after that, before the door flew shut behind the two of them, as they also left the Minerva's bridge.

To be continued.


	4. Chapter 4

I want to thank you guys, for pointing out my little mistake with the title.

Other then that, I don't really have all that much more to say right now, so just read and enjoy.

Chapter 4

When Athrun woke up the next day on the Minerva, the first thing he did was take a small look down at Cagalli that was sleeping peacefully on his chest, it was a bit hard to tell what kind of mood she was in this morning.

But he thought he could see a tiny hint of a smile on her lips, just seeing her like that, was more then enough to make it clear for him, that she had been having a good nights sleep.

Which made a small part of him wish he could say the same.

But he had been woken up more then few times because of nightmares of the past, most of them about seeing a great deal of those people he cared for in the last war die.

It really had been a bad night for the young man, just being involved in all of this made quite a few bad memories resurface, most of them things he truly didn't want to remember.

And after laying there for a long time trying his best to get his thoughts straighten out. He slowly reached down and gently removed Cagalli from his chest, and placed her head on the pillow he had been using for most of the night.

So after making extra sure, that she was comfortable there, he slowly sat up on the bed, doing his best not to disturb the still sleeping girl.

After making sure that she was still far away in dream land he just sat there quietly for a little time, just watching the girl he loved sleeping peacefully.

But he did not do that for long, before he stood up and began making his way over to the door, where he immediately exited the room, leaving his blond girlfriend alone in the room.

It did not take the young man much time before he was slowly flying down the ship's halls, heading towards the mess hall, hoping to find something to eat for both him and Cagalli.

But even as he did that he still couldn't get his mind away from all of his old comrades, and he truly hoped that this would be the last battle the space ship would be in, as long as the two of them where onboard.

And even with all of those thoughts running through his head, he soon arrived at his destination, not even taking one look around in there, before he slowly flew over to where he could see a few dish of delicious looking food just standing out waiting for the ships crew to just grab one of them.

But much to Athrun's slightly irritation he didn't even get near them, before a certain voice from yesterday called out to him.

"Well now will you look at that, we where just talking about you Athrun Zala and now here you are!" Luna said, while looking the blue hair boy over, with a big smile on her face.

But much to her disappointment he just took a short glance over at her, before he again continued making his way over to the food, it was kinda like she wasn't even presented.

As that was happening Nicol slowly raised his eyebrow, he had only seen Athrun act like this a few times before.

And true it had been a some time now since he had last seen it, there was just no mistake about that expression he had on his face, something was bothering his old friend.

"Athrun what's wrong? I can't even remember the last time you looked that depressed" Nicol said, sounding a bit worried about the blue hair boy.

Looking a few minutes at his green hair friend Athrun tried hard to make up his mind about what he should say.

But finally he let out a deep sigh, while turning his two tired eyes down towards the floor.

"Well it's just that with everything that happened since yesterday Nicol, I can't help but think about all of those friends, we lost in the last war" Athrun explained, with a far away look on his face.

Hearing his old team mate tell him what was going on, Nicol too got a somewhat depressed look in his two brown eyes, as the beautiful smiling face of a certain red hair girl came in to his mind.

Even after two years had gone by since he lost her, there was still times he couldn't get his thoughts away from her.

And those few words Athrun had just said to him, really made him think about her, and many of the other people he had once been fighting along side with.

And finally after sitting there for a few very long minutes far away in the past Luna's voice snapped him right back to where he was now.

"Ok I don't know about the rest, but I for once would really like to know what the two of you are talking about!" The red haired girl said, making both of them look over at her, each of them clearly thinking about the past.

But it was only a few brief seconds later, before Nicol quietly reached down and picked up the glass that was standing in front of him, where he took a small sip of the water, still not taking his eyes away from Luna.

"The two of us was just thinking about a few old friends!" Nicol said in a hard tone that show them all, that it would not be a wise idea to ask him any more questions about just who those old friends were.

Seeing that there was nobody else that was going to ask him anything, Nicol slowly stood up from his place at the table, now again with that far away expression on his face.

"Well if there is nothing else, then I would like to be alone for a bit!" The green hair boy explained, as he turned around and left the mess hall, before anybody there could get the chance to say something else to him.

Once his friend was out of sight, Athrun continued over to where the food filled dishes was standing, where he immediately grabbed two of them.

After that he turned and began making his way back towards the door.

"Do you mind telling us why the hell Nicol looked so depressed, all of us here have known him for some time now and neither of us have ever seen him look like that before, so you better tell us why he was so sad if you know what's good for you!" Shinn said, in a slightly threatening tone.

As he quickly jumped up from his sit, ready to stop the blue hair guy should he by any chance try and get out of the room, without giving him some kind of reply.

Looking at him for a bit, Athrun again sigh loudly. "It's not really my place to say, but he was most likely thinking about a certain person he lost in the last war, one he cared very deeply about" Athrun said, while looking straight in to the boys red eyes. Doing everything to show the Impulse pilot, that he was not going to say another word, even if Shinn asked him.

But there was somebody else that could not see the look Athrun was giving the short tempered boy. "That person he lost was that a girl?" Meyrin asked doing her best not to sound too curious, even true a part of her really want to know.

After knowing Nicol for such a long time, she really didn't think he could be sad, the expression that was mostly on his face was always a happy one, it was kinda hard for her to believe, that he was hiding such a deep sadness inside.

Hearing the Minerva's CIC ask him, that Athrun slowly turned his attention away from Shinn and over at the red hair girl.

Where he looked at her for a few seconds, which was enough for him to tell that the girl really cared about his green hair friend, and one small look around, at the rest of the people up there, was all Athrun need to tell that she wasn't the only one.

"I'm really sorry, but I can't tell you anything, it's up to Nicol to decide if he wants you guys to know or not, so you have to ask him!" Athrun said, while smiling sadly at the pigtailed girl, before he turned around and left the room, without even looking back once.

There was just no way he want to stay there any longer, he did not want the pilots back there, to ask him anything else he couldn't give them a answer to.

So once he was gone with the two dishes, Shinn turned and looked back a the other with a deep unhappy frown on his forehead.

"I don't like that guy, he is so damn irritating and I don't get why he wants to work for that stupid bitch!" The red eyed boy said thinking about the blond girl he had meet yesterday.

Which made him feel a little angry, that he hadn't been able to tell her, what he really thought about her before Nicol had stopped him.

But maybe there would be another chance for him to show the foolish girl just how stupid she was.

But unfortunately he didn't get much time to think about it, before Luna interrupted his thoughts.

"Well I think he is cute, and he is also really handsome!" The red hair girl said in a squeaky voice, and with a look on her face, that told them all that she was clearly thinking about the former piloted of the Justice gundam.

Which made Shinn roll his eyes a single time, as he sat there looking at the girl.

"Heh dream on Luna, he might be dating that Athha girl, but there is no way in hell he got bad enough taste to go out with you Luna!" Shinn joked in a loud tone, and with a big grin on his face.

Which made the red hair girl send him a truly angry glare, as she stood up and walked out of the room muttering something that sounded very much like big jerk, and with Meyrin walking right behind her.

Hearing his fellow pilot say that, Shinn again rolled his eyes. "I don't think, I will ever learn to understand women, why can't they take a joke?" The boy asked in a thoughtful tone, that made it pretty obvious that he was actually trying to figure out an answer to his own question.

At the same time Rey was just sitting there watching him with a sceptical look in both of his eyes. And finally after a few seconds, the blond teen slowly shook his head, while rolling his eyes a single.

"It's really no wonder you don't have a girlfriend!" he said, just before he again continued eating his breakfast in his usual a calm pace, that show he wasn't really in a big hurry to get out of the room.

Shinn on the other hand, had now turned his attention away from the door and was now looking at his best friend, with a somewhat confused look on his face.

But he didn't stay quiet for long, before he opened his mouth, and got out the one question he now want answers to. "And just what is that suppose to mean Rey? I could get a girlfriend if I really want one!" He said in a confident tone, and with a big grin on his face.

Looking at him for a bit, Rey smiled a bit, as he took another bite of his food.

"Not if you talk to her in such a manner, I myself don't have a girl at the moment, but that however doesn't mean I don't know how to talk to a lady" Rey said, while taking a small mouthful of water, before he once again began talking to his somewhat puzzled friend.

"And believe me Shinn most of them would much rather that you called them beautiful or something else nice, then having you insult them" the blond boy said, just as he stood up and walked over and place his now empty dish on the counter.

Which made it so the chef on the ship, could easily get a hold of it, when the time came for him to wash the plates, so they where clean for the crews next meal.

Thinking a few seconds about his friends words, Shinn too stood up as they together walked out of the mess hall, now heading for the Minerva's hangar.

"It's not like, I don't know what to say to a girl Rey, it's just that Lunamaria is always kinda easy to get angry, so I can't imagine who in their right mind would want to go out with her!" The boy said, while thinking back to just how many times the red hair girl had been mad at him, for some unknown reason.

Hearing Shinn say something like that, Rey couldn't help but let out a small laugh.

"Like you are one to talk about getting mad easily, I don't think there is one day that you are not in a bad mood about something Shinn" Rey said, still letting out a few light chuckles, as he took a quick glance over at the Impulse pilot, to see what kind of reaction he had to his words.

But much to Rey's surprise he actually seemed to be considering his words.

It did however not last long, before the thoughtful look disappeared from Shinn's face, as he smiled over at him.

"Yeah well from time to time, I just can't help but want to beat the crap out of everything we meet, especially those three machines!" The boy said loudly, as he used a few seconds to imagine himself tearing the Chaos, Gaia and Abyss, completely apart.

Seeing the now angry look on the other boy's face, Rey felt a small sigh leave him, as he once again began talking to the boy.

"You really should try and get at least a little control over it Shinn, someday you might run in to an opponent you can't beat with just angry and hate alone. You need to have a calm head doing battle, if you do that, I'm sure you can win against most opponents" Rey said, truly hoping that the boy was taking his advise seriously.

Hearing his best friends words, Shinn got a somewhat thoughtful look on his face, while he stood there thinking about Rey's advise.

But after a small minute had gone bym he again turned his two red eyes over towards his friend. "I don't really know about that Rey, but I promise you that I will at least think about what you just said!" The boy said smiling slightly at his fellow pilot.

That on the other hand only nodded a single time in understanding, before they once again continued making their way down to the ships hangar.

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Elsewhere on the ship Luna and Meyrin was walking slowly through the ships halls, the oldest of the two girls still with a deep angry frown on her forehead, as she kept complaining loudly about a certain boy.

"I can't believe that jerk! Why the hell isn't he more mature, stupid childish brat, I should have given him a good smack, when I had the chance!" The girl said in a determined tone, with a slightly evil grin on her face, as she thought about how it would have been had she done something like that.

She did however not give it much of her attention, before she once more continued telling her little sister just how displeased she was with the Impulse piloted.

Not that Meyrin was listening to her.

After hearing her big sister complain about Shinn for almost ten minutes straight. She had decided, that it was properly best to just ignore whatever she was saying, until she was done telling her just how big a moron Shinn was.

Unfortunately by doing something like that, she wasn't prepared when Luna suddenly stopped, and looked right back at her.

"Don't you think so too Meyrin?" She asked, truly expecting her little sister to agree with her, but much to her surprise Meyrin nodded yes to what she had just asked of her.

And once she saw her do that, the frown on her forehead got even bigger.

"So you seriously think Shinn is right about everything he said, I actually thought that you where on my side little sister!" The red hair girl said loudly, just before she turned around and stormed off, not giving Meyrin the chance to get out some kind of responsed.

Seeing her older sister disappearing down the hall, Meyrin couldn't help but let out a small breath, a small part of her feeling a little guilty about what she had just said to her sister.

But after just standing there for a bit she slowly shook her head, as she began making her way towards the bridge.

Thinking about when Luna was going to be in a good mood again, it wasn't like this was the first time the two of them had been fighting about something.

And Meyrin knew that it would only be a matter of time before Luna would forgive her, she always did after she was done sulking, and as far as she knew it could take a few hours before she was back to her usual good mood.

"I better tell her I'm sorry later!" Meyrin said, just before she enter the Minerva's bridges, where she gave Arthur a short salute then walked over to her sit, once she got comfortable there, it didn't take her more then a few minutes, before she was hard at work.

Still thinking about what she should said to her sister, when she was done with everything she need to do. But it didn't take long before her thoughts turned in another direction, as she began thinking about everything that had happened on the ship since yesterday.

It had after all been the very first day that the Minerva had been in real combat, which a small part of her found a tiny bit exciting, but also somewhat scary.

It wasn't really everyday she experienced something like that, and even true she had done everything to concentrate on what she was suppose to do, she had still been very worried about her big sister, just one of the three stolen mobile suits, was just so much more powerful then Lunamaria's ZAKU.

But much to Meyrin's relief, her big sister did come back safely from the battle against the three gundams.

Which in Meyrin's eyes was more important then recover those three deadly weapons.

Not that she was going to mention that to anybody else on the Minerva, now that the whole crew was so keen on getting them back, she just hoped that she wouldn't lose her big sister, while they where trying to accomplish that task.

But while the young woman sat there in her own thoughts.

She didn't noticed that the captain enter the bridge, she was just so far away at the moment, and it was only when the brown hair woman began talking to her, in the usual kind tone that Meyrin and the rest of the crew was use to when they where not in battle.

"What's wrong Meyrin, you don't look well?" Talia asked, making the red hair girl jump slightly in her sit, before she turned and look back at the captain.

Where she immediately blinked a few times over seeing the woman stand just behind her, and she hurried tried to come up with some kind of reply.

But after a few seconds of just opening and closing her mouth a couple of time, she told the captain that there was just a lot of things she need to think about, after everything that had been going on since yesterday, and that Talia didn't need to be concerned about her.

Those words immediately made a sceptical look ran over Talia's face. It was still quite obvious that there was something that was bothering the red hair teen, so after just studying her for a bit longer, Talia again opened her mouth.

"I would like to know what's going on Meyrin, you are the CIC and if you have some kind of problem and can't concentrate on your job, then all of us could be in danger!" The woman said, now sounding a bit angry.

Hearing that, Meyrin again looked up at the captain. "It's just that, I'm a bit worried about my sister when she is out there fighting against the three stolen machines!" The teen explained, as she slowly turned her attention away from the captain, and out at the stars that was in front of the Minerva, now with a slightly sad look on her face.

She hadn't want anybody to know what was bothering her.

Looking a few seconds at the girl Talia couldn't help but smile a bit, before she again began talkingm now in a much more calm tone.

"I'm pleased you told me the truth Meyrin, I know that all of you are having a tough time with everything that has happened!" She said, taking a quick look around at everybody up there, happy each of them where listening to what she had to say.

"I don't really think you have to worry about Luna, she is a good pilot and Shinn, Rey and Nicol are all out there with her, and I'm sure that they will all help her if there was a need for it, just like I know that she would help them, if they where in some kind of trouble" Talia explained, while thinking about just how close the two Hawke sisters was, it kind made her miss her own family back home.

Thinking a bit about everything the captain had just told her, Meyrin couldn't help but smile a bit.

"Thank you captain, I really needed to hear that!" The girl said, as she gave the brown hair woman a grateful nod, before she turned back to her work and once again began typing away at the controls in front of her.

Happy to know that the young girl was back to her usual good mood, Talia just kept standing there watching her work so hard for a few seconds, before she turned away and slowly made her way over to her chair.

Yet just when she was about to drop down in to it, Gilbert's face suddenly appeared up on the monitor, that was located directly in front of her.

"I'm sorry to bug you Talia, but would you please come down here, we got some very serious problems, much worse then the three gundams being stolen, and we need to talk about this right now!" He said sound amazingly calm.

Even true his face show her just how bad the news he want to tell her really was, and it truly made her wonder what was going on.

So after looking at him for a bit, she gave him a small nod. "I will be there shortly Gilbert" she said, as she quickly turned around and began flying over towards the door.

But she didn't get very far when the Chairman called out after her one more time, requesting her to bring Athrun Zala and the Orb princess with her, telling her that they too need to hear about this.

A bit confused by his request, Talia was just about to ask him what in the world was going on, and why it was so important that those two where there too.

But just as the words was about to leave her mouth.

The black hair man cut her of, and began talking in a fast tone, that she almost didn't understand.

"I will see you when you get down here Talia!" He said, just before he once again disappeared from the screen, leaving the entire bridge crew to wonder, what kind of news the Chairman had, that required the present of both of their guests.

And just as Arthur was about to ask the captain, what she thought could be happening.

Talia reached out and opened the door to the bridge, when she immediately disappeared out in to the halls, before any of the crew gather up there could get any kind of words out, that would delay her from getting down to the room where the Chairman was waiting for her.

Once she was gone Arthur quickly returned to his senses and turned back to the rest of the bridge crew.

"Ok you people, I don't know what all of this is about, but it would be best that we all continue with our work, I'm sure the captain will tell us everything if it's important!" The man said, while taking another small look over at the door.

Truly hoping that it wouldn't take to long before the brown hair woman would get back there and explain the situation to all of them.

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It only took about ten minutes before the three of them arrived at Gilbert's room.

Once they got in there, the very first thing they each noticed, was that he was having a somewhat unreadable, yet serious look on his face.

It really made it hard to guess what he had to tell them, especially for the two teenagers that had tried their best to figure out just why they where needed there.

The captain hadn't really said anything that could explain the reason the Chairman had asked to see them, together with the captain of the Minerva, and both of them had actually expect that the man had something very important to say.

Yet now he just sat there looking over a small bunch of paper, getting a more and more strange look in both of his eyes.

And just as Cagalli was about to ask the man, why she and Athrun was there he dropped the paper back down on the desk, and looked up at them.

His eyes almost boring straight in to them, it was like he was trying to see directly through each of them.

But he only did that for a short time, before he let out a small breath as he finally began explaining, why he had asked the three of them to be there. "Junius Seven is moving!" he said, sounding a tiny bit like it was the most normal news he could give them.

Hearing that three pairs of eyes widen in shock, as Cagalli took a small step over towards the desk.

"What do you mean it's moving? I thought it was stable in the debris belt!" The blond girl said loudly.

Once more getting the Chairman's eyes back up at her, where she immediately noticed that he still had that hard serious look in them, not that she cared much about that at the moment, she just want some answers.

That was when Talia reached over and picked up the papers from the desk, it really didn't take much of a genius to figure out, that there was some very important information on it.

And it didn't take long before she had read the whole thing, and was now standing there with a angry and thoughtful expression on her face, that made it somewhat hard to find out, just what she was thinking about.

But after just standing there for a bit she lifted her head and looked over at Gilbert.

"Well this doesn't really tell us all that much Gilbert. I would very much have liked to know why this is happening. I mean is there somebody out there that are trying to move the colony through the atmosphere so it will fall to earth, or is it just a natural occurrence?" The woman asked, as she again looked the paper over, trying to see if there was anything she had missed.

But while she was doing that, the other female in the room once again began talking loudly.

"You can't seriously believe that somebody is moving the whole thing, who in their right mind would do something like that?" The girl asked, she too obviously thinking very hard about, everything she had just heard.

Not that she got a whole lot of time to do that, before the Chairman began talking again.

"I really don't know who would do such a thing princess, but no matter what is going on, it can't be denied that Junius Seven is getting closer and closer to earth" the man said, while taking a brief glance over at Athrun, truly interested in hearing what the blue hair teenager's opinion, was in all of this.

But before he could get the time to ask the teen, Talia removed her eyes from the paper, and looked over at him, asking the one question each of them, would truly like to get an answer to.

"So what are we going to do now Mr Chairman?" The woman asked, deeply hoping that he would said, that they needed to go there and do everything possible, to prevent the colony from falling to earth.

And much to her big relief, he did not disappoint her.

"I do believe that the only thing we can do, is give up on our chase for Bogey One, it's not like any of us know where that ship went anyway, so we need to get to Junius Seven in a hurry and make sure that colony wouldn't crash to earth. That's truly is the most important thing for us and the rest of the crew to be doing right now!" the man explained, as he stood up from the chair, where he quickly took a small look between them.

Where he could immediately tell by their expressions that they all agreed with him, truly glad to know that, he gave each of them a small smile, and was just about to tell Talia that they should properly hurry and get going.

But even before he could get his mouth open, and say anything to the brown hair woman, the last person in the room began talking in a serious tone.

"I know that this might sound a bit strange, but I have a small request Mr Chairman?" Athrun said, with a determined expression, as he took a single step closer to the black haired leader of Zaft.

Who was now looking up at him with a somewhat curious look in both of his eyes, as he sat there studying the young man for a short minute.

"Ok Athrun please do tell, what it is you want to ask!" He said in a kind tone, hoping that this wouldn't take too long, they really didn't have the time for a long conversation.

But if he knew the boy right this would only take a few seconds.

"Well the thing is, I know this ship has an extra mobile suit onboard and that it has no pilot, so if it's all right with you I would like very much permission to use that machine when we reach Junius Seven!" Athrun explained, not once taking his eyes away from the Chairman, he want to see how the man would react, to what he had just asked of him.

But he just turned and took a look over at Talia that looked somewhat thoughtful, but when he saw her nod a single time, Gilbert turned and looked back at the blue hair teen.

"Ok Athrun you can use the ZAKU, if that's what you really want, there is really no doubt that we will have a better chance to stop the colony from falling, if we got more mobile suits out there!" The Chairman said, while he and Talia quickly turned around and left the room, leaving the young couple by them self.

And once they where gone, Cagalli just stood there a few minutes looking at her boyfriend, truly wondering if he was all right with getting in to that green mobile suit one more time.

So after just watching him for a bit she reached over and took his hand, making him look straight in to her eyes.

"Are you really sure you want to do this Athrun?" She asked in a small tone, that showed him just how concerned she was about his safety.

Which actually made him smile a bit at her, as he gave her hand a small gentle squeeze.

"It's not really something I want to do Cagalli, I just feel like I have to do this, there is just so many people I want to protect down on earth, especially those I care about, like Kira, Lacus and Mayu, there is no way I'm going to just sit here on this ship, while there is an option for me to help out!" The boy explained.

Just before he pulled his lovely girlfriend in to a tight hug, and slowly ran his two hands up and down her back.

So while standing there enjoying being in his arms like this, Cagalli thought hard about everything he had just told her, and could of course easily understand why he want to do this.

And now that she thought about it, she kinda wish that the Duel Rouge was up here, so she too could help out, she also wanted to protect all those people she loved and cared about, and everybody else down on earth.

But unfortunately, her own mobile suit was very far away from this place, and there was no way for her to get a hold of it now, so she just had to count on Athrun to protect all of them down there.

"You better be careful out there" she mumbled in to his ear, as she did something she had seen Lacus do so many times in the last war when ever Kira was going out in to a battle, she gave Athrun a light peck on his right cheek.

Smiling a bit at her Athrun gave her a kiss back, this time on her mouth, which she was quick response to by kissing him back. They did however not get long to truly enjoy it.

Before the captain of the grey space ship, began talking loudly out over the speakers.

Telling the entire crew what was happening at Junius Seven, and that all the mobile suits onboard should immediately be made ready to head out, once the Minerva arrived at the colony.

Hearing the captain say all of that, the two of them stood there in their own thoughts, just looking at each other for a short time.

But finally Athrun stepped away from Cagalli.

"I better hurry and get down to the hangar, I want to make extra sure, that there is no damage on the ZAKU this time, our last battle in that mobile suit didn't really go all that well!" The boy said, thinking back to how much trouble, the damage leg had given the two of them, the last time they had used that machine.

And Athrun seriously did not want a repeat of the last battle in that mobile suit, it had almost cost both of their lives, because the mobile suit couldn't stand on the ground without tipping to the left side, and almost falling over every single time they took a step.

"I'll see you when you get back Athrun" Cagalli said, interrupting Athrun in his deep thoughts about the ZAKU.

Once he heard those words he couldn't help but smile a bit at her as the two of them shared one more small kiss before they quickly left the room.

Once out in the halls they took one last look at each other, before Athrun turned and took of towards the hangar, leaving Cagalli to look after him, until he was completely out of sight.

After that she slowly began making her way up to the Minerva's bridge, still thinking about how the person she loved and how it still concerned her that he was going out there to help out, it wasn't like she didn't know how good a fighter he was in a mobile suit,

But if there was actually somebody at Junius Seven, that was insane enough to move the entire colony towards earth, then she was certain that whoever they where, would no doubt be some very dangerous people.

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Meanwhile elsewhere on the ship.

Nicol was busy working on his mobile suit, with a deep thoughtful frown on his face, he just couldn't get his mind of Mayura right now. And it didn't really help that Lunamaria had been hanging around since she arrived at the hangar not that long ago.

For some reason she did remind him a lot of his dear dead friend, even true he already knew that there was a big difference, in the two girls personality.

But now that the red hair ZAKU pilot was standing there with her back turned towards him, she looked somewhat like Mayura, and it really did make his thoughts about the Astray pilot run wild.

Which was clearly showed by that thoughtful expression he now had on his face.

Not noticing how Nicol was looking at her, with that far away yet sad look on his face.

Luna continued telling him loudly about how Shinn had insulted her, and how Meyrin had done the same thing, it was only after a few minutes that she turned and looked back at him.

"What do you think Nicol, don't you think any man would be happy to go out with me?" She asked, hoping for his sake that he wouldn't say something in the same lines as Shinn and Meyrin.

If he did that she would definitely give him a good beating, there was a limit to how many times she want to be insulted in one single day.

And if Nicol did it too, then she would certainly need to show him, just who the heck he was talking to.

Hearing Lunamaria ask him that, Nicol thought very hard about what he should say to her. It wasn't like he didn't think the ZAKU pilot was attractive, she did look quite beautiful.

Especially in her red space suit, but he had never really thought about going out with Luna, and now that she was actually asking him a question about it, he seriously didn't know what to say.

It wasn't like it was a big secret, but the green hair boy had never been good at talking with women, he always felt somewhat shy when he was around them, the only girl he had meet he didn't have those feelings, was when he had been close to Mayura.

But even as he sat there thinking about that, his eyes again land on Lunamaria, and one single look at her face, was enough to tell him that she was still waiting to hear an answer from him.

So after looking at her a bit more Nicol gave her a small smile, even true he was still feeling a deep sadness inside, after thinking about Mayura for such a long time.

But he was pretty good at hiding those emotions away, so nobody could see them, he had after all done it a lot of times now.

"I really do think you are going to make someone very happy one day in the future Luna, and if Shinn doesn't think anybody wants to go out with you, then he should seriously consider getting his eyes check, you truly are a very pretty girl!" The boy said.

Before he quickly looked away from her, not wanting to show of the slightly red glow he now had on his face.

Hearing him give her a compliment like that Luna too felt both of her cheeks get a little red, it had been sometime now since anybody had said something like that to her not since the academy had somebody given her such a nice compliment.

So after looking at the floor for a few minutes, she again slowly lifted her head and once again looked up at her green hair friend, that was now busy working inside his mobile suit.

Which made it clear for her, that he was feeling a little embarrassed right now, not that she didn't knew why.

He wasn't really that kind of person, that would give out a lot of compliments.

And as far as Lunamaria remembered, this was the very first time she had ever heard him say something like that to anybody. So after just standing watching him for some time.

She couldn't help but smile a bit, it truly made her happy to know, that it wasn't everybody on the ship that thought she would end up alone with five cats, as the only company in her life.

"Thank you Nicol, I'm certain that you will make some girl very happy someday too!" Luna said, before she turned around and took of towards her red mobile suit.

With Nicol looking after her for a few seconds, still thinking about Mayura and everything he had experience just now with the other red hair girl.

But once she was out of sight, he quickly shook his head a few times to get his mind back to the present.

It wasn't really the right time for him to think about the past, he could always do that later, and with that in mind it didn't take long before he was once again working hard on his yellow war machine.

It was much after that before Athrun enter the hangar dressed in a red Zaft space suit, he had borrow from the pilot ready room.

And even true Nicol was still quite busy, making the last few adjustments on his mobile suit, to make absolutely sure that everything function as it should, he couldn't help but feel somewhat surprised, at seeing his former team mate, in something like that again.

So once he got over his minor shock he hurried jumped away from the GOUF and began making his way over towards his blue hair friend, that was at this exact moment standing directly in front of the only mobile suit in the hangar that didn't have a pilot.

So once Nicol got over to him, he too looked up at the ZAKU wondering a bit why Athrun found so interesting.

But before he could ask him about it, Athrun opened his mouth and began talking in a small tone that only Nicol could hear, and that was only because he was now standing right behind him.

"I truly didn't think, that after the last war, that there would ever come a time where it was necessary, for me to get in to a mobile suit and fight again" Athrun said in a far away tone, as he thought back to many of the things he had done while piloting the Justice gundam.

Like the time where he had destroyed the Forbidden gundam and killed that lunatic inside that machine, and that other time where he and Kira, had been fighting a minor army of mobile suits.

Hearing those few words, Nicol slowly looked away from the ZAKU and over at his blue hair friend, where he saw that both of Athrun's green eyes was still turned towards the ZAKU, obviously thinking very hard about something.

Seeing that, Nicol was just about to say something to his friend, when Athrun finally turned and looked over at him.

"Why did you decide to get in to a mobile suit again, Nicol?" The blue hair teenager asked, now sounding just a tiny bit curious, even true it was kinda hard to tell at the moment.

It was quite obvious that Athrun still had a lot of things he need to think about.

Not that Nicol had anything against that, it gave him the time he need to come up with an answer to Athrun's question, and after a few minutes he began talking in the same kind of voice as Athrun, he seriously didn't want anybody else down here to hear him.

"I don't really know Athrun, I just felt like I had to protect the world that Mayura lost her life for" the green hair boy said, while looking down at the floor.

He didn't even noticed that Athrun was now looking straight at him, and it was only when he felt a hand being placed on his shoulder, that he removed his attention up from the floor and turned back towards his friend, where he saw Athrun smiling sadly at him.

"I'm sorry that I asked Nicol, I didn't mean to bring up any painful memories" Athrun explained.

Hearing that Nicol felt a small sad smile ran over his lips, as he took a brief glance back at his GOUF, before he again looked at Athrun.

"It's all right Athrun, I know you didn't do it on purpose, but to talk about something else, I guess that you are going out too, once we reach Junius Seven, otherwise I can't see the reason why you are dressed in that space suit!" The green hair man said, as he wonder slightly, if Athrun was as good a pilot, as he was two years ago.

He did however not get much time to really think about it, before Athrun began talking in a very determined tone, that Nicol hadn't heard him use since the last war.

"You absolutely right Nicol, I am going to help you guys out once we get there. I just can't sit around in here while something like this is happening, there is just no way we can allow Junius Seven to fall!" Athrun said, again thinking about how many people was down on the green and blue planet.

Smiling a bit at everything, Athrun had just told him, Nicol nodded a single time in understanding.

"Hm I see, I'm glad to know that all of us on Minerva, is fighting for the exact same thing Athrun, you are going to be a great help out there" Nicol said, thinking back to just how good a pilot his blue hair friend had been in the past.

And if he skills hadn't diminished, then he knew that he and the rest of the Minerva's pilots, would surely have a great allied when they arrived at Junius Seven.

Think a few seconds about what Nicol had just said, Athrun slowly opened his mouth and was just about to say something back.

When suddenly Lunamaria landed beside them, where she immediately looked Athrun over in his space suit, thinking about how handsome he was in that thing, and it truly made her wonder if he liked the sight of her dressed in her own space suit.

But much to her disappointment, his expression didn't really give her any clues, about what he was thinking about right now.

So after watching him a bit longer, the red hair girl felt a small angry frown ran over her forehead, as she began speaking to him in a voice that clearly, show both of the boys, that she was kidding around right now.

"Well, well so you are going out too, are you sure that you can still remember how to pilot a mobile suit. As far as I know it has been some time since you last used one!" She said now looking straight in to his eyes, with a teasing smile on her face, as she stood there waiting eagerly for some kind of reaction to her words.

But unfortunately he did disappointed her one more time, by just smiling a bit at her, as he gave her a reply back, in the same teasing tone of voice, she had just been using a few minutes ago.

"You don't have to worry about me, there is no way I'm going to let a few bunch of novices fresh out of the academy show me up!" He said, still with that smile on his face.

Hearing him say that Luna got a somewhat angry look on her face. "I'm not a novice, I'll show you when we get out there!" the girl said loudly, as she turned around and began making her way back towards her red mobile suit.

Seeing her leave with that angry look on her face, Nicol quickly call out after her before she could get to far away.

"Hey Lunamaria wait just a sec, there is one small thing, I need to tell you!" The green hair boy said, in a loud tone.

Which immediately made the girl stop, and look back at him, still looking somewhat angry, which made it clear for both of the boys, that Nicol better hurry up and tell her what he wanted.

"Please do be careful out there Luna, and don't worry to much about what Athrun is saying he is just teasing you!" Nicol explained, while looking directly in to Luna's two blue eyes with an expression on his face, that told her that he was serious about everything he had just told her now.

He truly didn't want the red hair ZAKU pilot, to get seriously hurt, because she was busy showing of her skills.

But a small part of Nicol already knew that Lunamaria was clever enough not to do something that reckless. She always seemed to take whatever battle they where in very serious.

But Athrun's teasing words might have given her pride a small hit.

It did however not take long, before it became obvious to him that he had nothing to worry about, that smile she now had on her face, was all he need to see, to know that she hadn't taken any of the things Athrun had said to serious.

"You don't have to worry about me Nicol, I will be all right. I'm actually more concerned about you two, I really don't want to be the one who has to salvaged your mobile suits, if you guys gets beaten out there!" she said in a determined tone, as she again continued the rest of the way over to her ZAKU, still with that small grin on her face.

Looking after her for a few seconds, both former members of the Le Creuset team, slowly shook their heads.

"She got quite the temper!" Athrun said sounding just a bit thoughtful, as he turned and looked over at his green hair friend, that nodded slowly in agreement.

"Yes she does, but she truly is a good pilot, she did keep the Gaia busy all on her own, in the last battle we where in" Nicol explained, while thinking back to what little he had seen of the fight between the black gundam and the red mass-produced mobile suit.

And he could without lying said, that she had done a very impressive job back there, it certainly did explain how she had gotten her red uniform.

Thinking a bit about what Nicol had just said about the girl, Athrun turned and took a short glance over at the white mobile suit, seeing the blond guy he had seen a few times around the ship.

The other one that had insulted Cagalli, was no where to be seen.

"So how about the other two pilots, anything I need to look out after when we get there?" Athrun asked in a very serious tone.

He want to be totally sure that he was as prepared for this as possible, and knowing just a little about the people he might be fighting together with, once the Minerva finally arrived at Junius Seven, was in his eyes a very good idea.

Hearing his friends question, Nicol looked straight up at the ceiling, with a somewhat thoughtful expression on his face, as he slowly reached up and scratched his long green hair.

"Hmm let see, there might be a few things" he said, still sounding like he was thinking quite hard about something.

It did however not take Nicol much time before he was telling Athrun, a little about how Shinn and Rey fought once they got out in to a battle, he especially made certain to mention, how well the Impulse pilot and the ZAKU piloted worked together.

Which made Athrun nod a single time in understanding.

While Nicol told him a few other thing, not really the biggest secrets around the ship, just those few minor things, that all who had seen the other two male pilots on the Minerva fight, would figure out almost immediately.

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As the two friends was talking down at the hangar.

The bridge was full of activity as the ship was getting closer and closer to Junius Seven. There had been pretty quiet up there, for the last few minutes, as the crew was busy doing their work.

But the silence was brought to and end, when Meyrin suddenly began talking in a loud tone, while she turned and looked back at the woman in charge.

"Captain we just receive a message from the Zaft forces already at Junius Seven, apparently they are under attack by an unknown force, that is trying to stop them from moving the colony away from earth!" The red hair girl said, as she moved her attention back towards her screen, to see if anything else was coming in.

But it really did seem like, the message was done.

Hearing Meyrin tell her that, Talia couldn't help but give her low lips a small hard bite, as a deep angry frown ran over her forehead.

She really didn't like the idea that somebody was working against them.

And she truly wonder who the heck those people was, and why they where doing something this crazy. She did however not get much time to think about it, before Gilbert's voice could be heard all over the bridge.

"So it truly isn't God's will after all" he said in a tone that made it clear for all of them, that he wasn't happy to know that somebody was actually involved in moving the entire space colony.

And that far away expression, that was now on his face, really made the crew wonder, just what exactly the Chairman was thinking about.

But it only took a few seconds, before Talia slowly turned both of her eyes away from him, and over on Meyrin. "How much time does it take before we get there?" She asked loudly, seriously hoping that they would get there before it was too late.

But once the girl told her that they where almost there, she immediately took a brief look out of the window where she could see the giant colony in the distance.

Truly relieved that they where just about there, she hurried yelled out a few loud orders.

"Ok lower the bridge, and make sure that our pilots knows that they have to fight once we arrive there!" The woman said taking a look around at the crew, that was doing everything to carry out her orders, as quickly as possible.

And she could already hear, Meyrin talk loudly to all the mobile suit pilots.

It was just about the same time, that Bart told her a few more bad news.

"Captain! Bogey One is there, I can't really tell what it's doing from this distance, but I do think it's safe to assume that it's involved somehow!" He told her, while trying to find any signs of the three stolen gundams, but apparently none of them had joined the party yet.

Hearing those words Talia couldn't help but mutter out a few curses, just as Meyrin began telling Luna and the other pilots, what they had to go up against, once they got to Junius Seven, and it was only a short minute later before Shinn began talking in a loud angry tone.

"Well that's just great! I guess we just have to beat the crap out of those three bastards one more time!" The boy yelled, making it sound a bit like it was going to be much easier this time, to defeat the three gundams.

Listening to the boy's words, the captain of the Minerva felt a small frown ran over her forehead, as she began talking to the boy in a serious tone.

"Please remember Shinn that fighting those three are not our primary objective this time, you guys need to cover the work crew there, so they can get enough time to change Junius Seven's path!" The woman explained loudly, out over the radio.

"I know, I know, but if we can get those guys too, then I really don't think we should let this chance slip by us!" The boy said, in a determined tone and with a small grin on his face, as he did a few minor adjustments to the controls in the Core Splendor, making sure that everything in the small aircraft was ready, once he and the others finally got out there.

Not really happy to know that the boy was this keen on fighting the three stolen mobile suits.

Talia was just about to tell him one more time, what they need to do at Junius Seven.

Yet before she could even get her mouth open somebody else cut in, and began talking in a somewhat calm yet serious tone, that all of them couldn't help but listen to.

"I don't think you have to worry Talia, I'm quite certain that all of us here, already knows what's at stake, if Junius Seven falls there is no telling how many people will die, and I highly doubt that anybody here would like to witness something so terrible" Gilbert said, taking a small look around at everybody gather up there, where he noticed that some of them was obviously thinking very hard about what he had just said.

Which made a small smile ran over his lips, it was truly nice to know that they all where fighting for the same thing.

And it really made him believe that the Minerva and her crew could stop whatever was happening at Junius Seven, and even as those thoughts was running through the Chairman's head.

The grey space ship continued flying with full speed towards the battle that was waiting just ahead of them, while all the mobile suits was being made ready to launch.

To be continued.


	5. Chapter 5

Hey boys and girls out there, I want to thank you all for reviewing.

And don't forget to throw in a small comment or two, this time around.

Chapter 5

The last ZAKU had just left the Minerva, and now all five mobile suits was heading towards Junius Seven.

"Ok you guys lets split up and take down those attacking GINNs as quickly as possible, the work crew really don't have the time to fight those guys right now!" Rey yelled loudly, as he quick evade a few beams from the first GINN only to have Shinn shoot it down a second later.

After that he hurried pulled out a beam saber and took of directly towards the next GINN where he hurried tried to cut it in two.

But the purple mobile suit just flew straight over the weapon and away from him, and once it had gotten a little distance between itself and the gundam it immediately began firing it's beam rifle down at the Impulse.

Seeing the beams coming right at him, Shinn quickly throw his mobile suit backwards, as he tried to aim his own rifle at the GINN.

But before he could even get a shot of, the GINN was destroyed from behind and he could see Rey's white ZAKU there.

"Let's hurry Shinn, we need to take out those guys, before they can make any more trouble for us!" The blond teen yelled, as he began shooting of his beam rifle at two more approaching GINNs.

Once he saw his friend do that, it didn't take long before Shinn too was firing his own rifle at them.

Yet every time it seemed like the beams was going to hit the enemy machines, they quickly evade to the side.

"Rey! Just who the hell are those bastards!?" The boy yelled loudly, as he used the shield to defend himself, just before two shots from the closed GINN could hit him.

Then he hurried fired of a few beams back after the mobile suit, forcing it to back away from him.

And while it was doing that, he immediately fired one well placed shot in to the back of the GINN, making it blow up in a minor explosion, after that he turned and saw Rey finish of the other one.

"I don't know who they are Shinn, but be careful when you are fighting them, they clearly have a lot of experience in piloting those GINNs!" The blond boy yelled, just as he evade another attack from a new GINN, that was coming right at him.

And it only took a few seconds, before the ZAKU and GINN was flying almost next to each other, both of them doing everything to defeat their opponent in a hurry.

The sight of his friend, and the other mobile suit fighting like that.

Shinn quickly realized that if he got involved in that.

He might actually end up just being in Rey's way, so it was no doubt best, to let Rey handle this on his own, then for him to try and help him.

So after looking at the ZAKU for a few short seconds, he turned the Impulse around, and took of to where he could see a few other Zaft forces, fighting against three more of the strange looking GINNs.

And it wasn't much later before he had cut the first one of them down with the beam saber, and was now shooting of the two machine guns in his mobile suit's chest after another one, that immediately flew up over the shoots where it began firing back.

But Shinn however only narrowed his eyes a bit, as he made sure to use the shield, to take care of all the beams, that was coming at him.

After that he hurried put the beam saber away again and got the beam rifle out, where he didn't waste any time in shooting back at the GINN.

And it take long, before the two mobile suits was flying full speed at each other, and it took even least time, before a one single beam left both of their rifles, heading directly towards each other.

But as the two beams was about to make contact with their target, Shinn hurried evade to the side and fired one more shot at the GINN, that at the same moment had just gotten over his first attack.

Luckily this time the bastard inside the purple GINN, didn't have nearly as much time to avoid the beam.

Which meant that the left leg, was blown completely of the mobile suit.

Smirking a bit at that Shinn was just about attack the GINN one more time, when suddenly a rain of beams flew through the back of the purple mobile suit and came straight at him, which immediately made him react.

He hurried got the shield up in front of himself, making it take two of the beams, while the rest flew closely by him, and hit Junius Seven instead.

Not that he gave that much of his attention, he was far to busy looking at the blue mobile suit, that had been responsible for taking out the GINN, he had just been fighting.

"Ohhh crap! I really hate you three!" He said out over the radio, not once taking his eyes away from the Abyss gundam, that now had it's lance out and was coming right at him.

Seeing that he hurried pulled out one of the beam sabers and flew of to meet the Abyss mid way.

And it didn't even take a minute, before the two gundams slammed their weapons together, both of them struggling hard to over win each other, and it was just about the same time, that Shinn could hear an angry voice talking to him out over the radio.

"Believe me you bastard, the feeling is mutual!" The guy in the Abyss told him coldly.

Just as the two of them broke apart, where they immediately fired of their beam weapons at each other, which of course made both pilots, evade to the side, so the beams flew right past them.

But just as Shinn was about to attack the Abyss one more time, the blue gundam lifted up both of it's fins and fired of a new round of beams at him.

"Damn you!" the Impulse piloted yelled loudly, as he hurried made his way up over the attack, where he immediately fired of two shoots down at the enemy unit.

But much to his big irritation, none of them came close to hitting the blue mobile suit.

That was already shooting back at him with everything it got, and there wasn't really any doubt in the boy's mind, that the Abyss clearly had the biggest advantage in long distance combat.

And with that in mind he quickly pulled out the beam saber again, and took of towards the still shooting mobile suit.

But after avoiding getting hit by all of it's attacks.

It wasn't long after, before the boy slammed the beam saber out after the Abyss, that immediately moved up over the weapon, where it didn't even waste even a second, in thrusting it's lance down after him.

But before it could hit the Impulse, Shinn hurried pulled the shield up to defend himself against the attack. And as the Abyss tried to push the shield away, he couldn't help but yell out a few more curses at the blue machine.

This time however, he didn't get any kind of response from the machine's pilot.

The Abyss just continued fighting him, with the same insane eagerness, he had seen more then a few times, since he had first faced this mobile suit in battle.

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At the same time not that far away from where the Impulse was fighting with the Abyss.

Nicol was covering a team of three GuAIZ Rs, that had just finished placing yet another one of the flare motors on the surface on Junius Seven.

Yet just as they where about to activate it, two beams suddenly flew in and hit the closed GuAIZ Rs, destroying it completely. Seeing that Nicol hurried turned and saw two of the GINNs coming right at them.

"You guys keep working, I'll take care of them!" He yelled loudly, just before he took of towards the two machines, that immediately tried to shoot him down.

But the green hair teen didn't give them the opportunity to aim properly.

He made sure to keep the GOUF moving until he got in range to use the whip, that he hurried throw out after the nears one, entangling it's right arm where he didn't waste any time in sending out a big electric shock that destroyed the entire arm.

After that a few well placed shoots from the beam gun, was enough to destroy the mobile suit.

He did however not get much time to think about that, before a heavy sword was slammed out after him, which forced him to get the shield up in a hurry, to counter the attack.

And immediately after he did that, the guy inside the GINN tried his best to push the shield away.

He did however not have much luck with that, because as the two of them struggling against each other like that, the green haired pilot gave the GINN a very hard kick in it's stomach area, making it spining away from him.

Truly happy to have a short break, Nicol hurried pulled out his beam sword, and charged full speed at the GINN, that was already making it's way towards him.

And it was only a few seconds later, before each mobile suits thrust out their close combat weapons.

But both of them made sure to have their shields ready, which meant both mobile suits was soon locked together, each pilot doing everything they could think of to overpower their opponent.

But seeing that he wasn't going to beat this pilot like this.

Nicol made the decision that he had to get away from the GINN.

So after struggling like that for about a small minute or two. He quickly backed away from the purple mobile suit, where he immediately throw the whip straight at the GINNs cockpit.

But before the weapon could make contact, the GINN made a small manoeuvre to the side, barely avoiding getting pierced by the weapon.

And even as it was evading like that it was still shooting of it's beam rifle at him. But the former Blitz pilot was quick to responed to that, and was soon firing his own weapons back at the GINN.

"This guy is really good!" Nicol grumbled loudly, as he continued trying to defeat the purple mobile suit, not realizing that he was actually fighting the second in command of the small army of GINNs.

But even if he had know who he was up against, there was no way the green hair teen would allow this guy another chance to destroy any more of the GuAIZ Rs that was still working on trying to move Junius Seven in any other direction than earth.

But he even as the two of them continued fighting and shooting at each other like that, Nicol couldn't help wonder just who the hell this guy was, and why he was fighting so intensely.

So after evading yet another shot from the GINN, he began talking loudly to the pilot.

"Who are you? And why are you doing this!?" The boy asked, still shooting of the beam guns on the GOUFs right arm, after the GINN, that hurried flew up over all the beams and fired a few shoots back at him.

That was when the person in the GINN gave him an answer.

"I'm just a lonely man who wants to make sure his wife can rest in peace, she was killed down there when those disgusting Naturals came here and destroyed this place!" The man said, just as the purple and yellow mobile suit again came together.

Hearing the man said that, Nicol couldn't help but blink a few times, as he took a small glance down at the Junius Seven, thinking hard about the mans words.

He truly did feel sorry for him, he knew what it was like to lose somebody one cared so much about. But even so, it didn't make it right for them, to kill all those people down on earth, there would just come so much sorrow with it.

So after being in a lock like that for a few seconds, they again pulled away from each other.

"Believe me, I really do understand what you are saying, but there is so many innocent people down there, that didn't have anything to do with Junius Seven, some of them where properly feeling, just as badly about it as we where!" The boy yelled, as the two machines weapons was yet again thrust out after each other.

"It's doesn't matter if they feel bad about it or not, they didn't do anything to save my sweet Jennifer, so that's why they all deserve to die!" The man yelled, just as he tried to put the heavy sword through the GOUF's cockpit.

But just before the melee weapon could even touch the yellow mobile suit.

Nicol quickly got the GOUF moving, and flew directly up over the attack, then he turned and throw the whip down at the GINN.

Making it wrapped itself around the sword, where he immediately gave the weapon a hard yank, tearing it straight out of the GINNs hand, that didn't waste any time in trying to get a hold on it's beam rifle.

And only just succeed in that, when Nicol once again throw the whip down at it, this time hitting the head of the GINN, destroying the main camera on the mobile suit, blinding it completely.

After that, he hurried pulled the weapon back, and took of directly towards the now damage machine, that couldn't even see what was going to happen next.

Once close enough he gave the GINN a hard kick in it's chest area, sending it swinging straight down towards Junius Seven, where it smashed right in to the surface colony and blow up.

But even as he was hanging there watching the minor explosion, Nicol felt a sad look ran over his face.

"I really do hope you and your wife can rest in peace, without Junius Seven falling!" He muttered quietly to himself, just before he took of to help a few other GuAIZ Rs, that couldn't work, because a few GINNs, just kept on attacking them.

But fortunately, it didn't take long, before Nicol got in between them, and immediately began shooting at one of the GINNs, that of course shoot right back.

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Elsewhere Athrun had just finished taking down yet another GINN that was trying to destroy the flare motor he was closed too.

Not that he had much time to relax before he was forced to evade an attack from another approaching GINN, that was obviously trying to get him out of the way so it could destroy the flare motor.

But thanks to his quick responed the two beams it had fired flew right past him.

Not that Athrun cared much about that, he was already far to busy shooting back at the GINN.

But he didn't even get the chance to hit the purple mobile suit, before two green Gunbarrels flew in and destroyed the GINN from behind, but even as that happened, Athrun was far from happy to see, what was now coming right at him.

"Damn you guys hurry up, I'll keep this guy busy!" The blue hair teen yelled loudly.

As he began making his way towards the still approaching Chaos gundam, where he immediately fired of a more then a dozen of beams at the green mobile suit.

That of course didn't have any trouble shooting back.

Which forced Athrun to chance direction in a hurried, and it didn't take long before he land on Junius Seven's surface where he fired one single shot up at the Chaos, that apparently chosen him for a target.

Unfortunately the only thing he hit on the gundam was it's shield that it quickly lowed again, and fired of pretty much every weapon it had down at him.

Seeing that he hurried jumped to the side so the attack hit the colony instead.

Once he had avoided that he hurried fired one more shoot up after the Chaos, that quickly rolled to the side where it immediately shoot of another round at him.

But Athrun had already left the place the Chaos pilot had been aiming at, which meant that the attack didn't even came near him, they just flew down and made yet another small impact on Junius Seven's surface.

But as that was happening Athrun found himself behind the green gundam.

Something he was quick to take advantage of, by pulling out the beam tomahawk, and throwing it full speed at the back of the gundam hitting one of the Gunbarrels that was place there.

But just before it could blow up and do some serious damage to the Chaos, both of them left the back of the gundam, so the green mobile suit itself, wasn't touch by the explosion of the barrel, and now the last of them was coming directly towards him.

Seeing that Athrun felt a small frown ran over his forehead, he need to take out that barrel too, that way he would have a much better chance to defeat the gundam.

He did however not even get one shot of, before a big red beam flew in from another direction, and destroyed the Gunbarrel.

Once that happened he only blinked a single time in confuse, it did however not take him long to get over that, and he was soon firing more then a few shots at the Chaos, forcing the green gundam to quickly evade to the side.

That was when another red beam came flying in, almost blowing the right arm of the gundam.

But whoever the pilot was inside the Chaos, made certain to keep the mobile suit moving so the attack didn't even leave a scratch.

And it was just about that time, Athrun saw a red ZAKU coming towards him in a high speed, and once it got over beside him, he heard the voice of the red haired girl he knew was inside that machine.

"Damn it! I seriously have had all I can take of those three, we just have to take them out right now!" Luna yelled, as she fired another shot at the Chaos, that hurried got over in it's mobile armor mode, and flew full speed away from them.

But it only took a small minute then it change course, once again coming right towards them.

Seeing that both pilots immediately began shooting at the Chaos, making sure that the gundam was forced to keep some distance between itself and them.

But even as both of them, where trying their best to make a few nice air holes in the gundam, it kept moving around so damn fast that every time it looked like they where just about to hit the machine, it somehow evade both of their attacks.

Which again made the girl yell out just how annoying all of this was, and that the moron in the Chaos was going down no matter what.

And even as she was saying those words, she hurried took aim and once again fired a shot at the gundam.

Still not having much luck, in actually doing some real damage to the machine, that was still flying hastily around them, obviously doing everything possible to make itself a hard target to hit.

But even as the two of them, was keeping the green gundam on it's toes. Athrun began speaking to the red hair girl in a much calm tone, that nobody else would use under the circumstance they where in right now.

"Try not let them bother you so much, it's not like we are actually here to fight those three!" Athrun yelled, as he took a glance down at the flare motor he had been with earlier, where he saw two of the GuAIZ Rs trying to get the thing ready to use.

And he could see, that they where just about to activate the device, when he saw something black came running straight at them on four legs.

And just one glint at the fast moving thing, was more then enough to tell him what it was. "Look out, the Gaia is heading your way!" He called out, after the two Zaft pilots, that was still working on the flare motor.

But unfortunately his warning came to late, as the Gaia jumped up from the ground, where it immediately fired of two rounds, from the three beam weapons it had in this mode.

Which was more then enough to take out the two GuAIZ Rs, before the pilots inside the mobile suits even had the time to react.

So now the flare motor was all alone down there, with nothing to defend it.

A chance the person inside the Gaia apparently didn't want to waste, as the black four legged mobile suit dropped down almost beside the strange looking device, where it immediately turned, and began shooting of all it's weapons up at the flare motor.

Destroying it completely, before it could be used for it's originally purpose, of trying to get Junius Seven, further away from earth.

Seeing whoever was inside the Gaia do something so idiotic, Athrun gave his lower lip a very, very hard bit actually getting a little blood to fly out in to his helmet.

Not that he gave that much of his attention, he just turned the ZAKU around and fired of two shoots down at the Gaia, that quickly jumped away before any of the beams could hit the mobile suit.

Which immediately made Athrun narrowed his eyes a bit, as he once again began shooting down at the four legged mobile suit, that was now running full speed over Junius Sevens rocky surface, jumping around on pretty much everything down there to evade all of Athrun's attacks.

But as he continued trying to take out the Gaia like that, it suddenly jumped away from the colony, and transformed in to it's mobile suit mode, where it immediately got a hold on it's beam rifle, and fired two shots directly up at him.

Once that happened Athrun hurried used the shield to take care of the first beam, then he quickly made a small manoeuvre to the left to avoided the next shot.

After that it didn't even take a minute, before he was flying full speed down towards the black mobile suit, grabbing a heavy sword that one of the GINNs had left behind.

And it was just shortly after that, before he slammed the long sharp weapon out after the Gaia, that of course used it's shield to defend itself from his attack.

The two of them continued struggling like that for a few minutes, but it didn't take long before they quickly broke apart, the Gaia shooting of the two machine guns it had in it's head, a few of the shots coming dangerously close, to do some serious damage to Athrun's green ZAKU.

But he hurried took cover behind a few parts, of the still moving colony, where he immediately began shooting at the hastily approaching gundam, forcing it to chance direction.

At the same time not that far away Luna was watching as Athrun was fighting the Gaia, a part of her feeling slightly impressed at how well he was handling himself against the black stolen mobile suit.

"Hey Athrun, are you ok down there?!" She asked, while again trying to take down the Chaos, before it could make any more trouble for them.

"Yes I'm all right, you just keep the Chaos busy, there is no way I can handle both of them at the same time!" The boy yelled, as he quickly ducked down under the Gaia, that was now once again fighting him in it's quadruped mode.

It truly did looked like a wild animal right now, especially with the two beam blades out and ready to strike, not that he was going to give this bastard the chance to do that.

And it was just, as that thought enter his mind. That the Gaia fired of it's three beam weapons then jumped straight towards him.

He quickly avoid all three shots, and was just about to face the gundam head on, armed only with the heavy sword he had picked up not long ago.

But just as the two mobile suits was about to smash together, a yellow GOUF suddenly dropped down from out of nowhere, and gave the Gaia a very hard kick, in the middle of it's face, sending it clashing to the ground not that far away from them.

"Hey Athrun, I'm sorry to interrupt, but it did looked like you could use my help!" The pilot inside the GOUF said, still keeping a very close eye on the Gaia that by now was already getting back on it's feet again.

"Yeah you could say that Nicol, even true I honestly rather help out with moving Junius Seven, then waste time fighting with those two!" Athrun said, while taking a short glance up at the Chaos.

Just as it rolled away from another one of Lunamaria's attacks, then fired of it's beam rifle right back at the red ZAKU.

That quickly evade to the side, it was kinda hard to see who of them was having the advantage from this distance, but it truly didn't seem like the girl need their assistant right now.

Which was actually a good thing, that way they could both concentrate on the Gaia, that was at this very moment coming directly at them, obviously quite determined to take both of them down in a hurry.

Not that the two men was going to make it that easy, for whoever was inside the Gaia, and once the black gundam fired of all three of beam weapons.

Both the ZAKU and the GOUF hurried jumped away from Junius Seven surface, where they immediately began shooting down at the Gaia, with pretty much every long range weapon they got.

Which of course made the Gaia fire right back at them.

But they hadn't really been fighting like that for long, before Junius Seven suddenly broke in two, and a very big part of the colony began moving slowly away from earth.

But unfortunately there was still a great deal of the space colony that hadn't change direction and was still heading slowly towards the green and blue planet, that was getting somewhat bigger and bigger by every minute that went by.

"Damn it! It's not enough, Nicol we have to take this guy out right now!" Athrun yelled loudly, just before he charge of full speed towards the Gaia, with the yellow GOUF following closely behind him.

And just as they where about to attack the black gundam it quickly jumped backwards where it transformed in to it's mobile suit, where it immediately pulled out a beam saber.

But even as it did that, Nicol and Athrun was still heading towards the Gaia, that hurried tried to put it's beam saber directly through Athrun's cockpit.

But he quickly got the shield up to take the attack, but as the two of them where struggling like that.

Nicol flew in from the side and slammed his beam sword out after the Gaia, cutting the left arm straight of the gundam, just as Athrun gave the black mobile suit a hard kick in it's stomach, sending it swinging away from them, directly towards a smaller asteroid.

Yet before the Gaia could smash in to it, the Chaos got in the way and saved the black gundam, from some serious damage.

It just about that time that Lunamaira's ZAKU came over beside the two boys.

"I'm sorry that I couldn't distract the Chaos any longer, he took of, when he saw what the two of you where doing to the Gaia" the red hair girl explain, while getting ready to counter whatever the two gundams was going to throw at them next.

It was obvious from the way they where moving around right now, that they where far from done fighting with them.

Hearing Lunamaria said that, Nicol took a quick glance away from their opponents, and over at the red ZAKU, that was almost right beside him.

"It's all right Luna, we don't blame you, now lets not waste any time talking, we need to get rid of those two in a hurry!" The green hair GOUF pilot said, in a loud tone.

Just as the three Zaft mobile suit, once again took of towards the Gaia and the Chaos, each pilot determined to give the two stolen gundams, the most serious beating they could ever imagine.

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Meanwhile on the Minerva.

Talia was softly drumming her fingers against the arm rest of her chair, while she watched as about half of Junius Seven continued heading slowly towards earth.

Finally after a few minute of very tense silence, the woman turned and looked over at Meyrin. "How much time will it take, before Junius Seven breaks through the atmosphere?" She asked, while again looking out at the sad remains of the old colony.

"Hmm it's kinda hard to tell captain, but if it continue with the speed it has now, then about fifteen minutes, maybe even less!" The girl explained, as she looked away from her controls and out at the fallen colony.

She did however not get all that much time to do that, before the captain again asked her a question in a loud serious tone, this time about what their mobile suits was doing right now.

Hearing her asked that, Meyrin immediately began trying to figure out the answers to her question.

And it wasn't long after, before she again opened her mouth, where she began telling the woman what she want to know.

"The Impulse is fighting with the Abyss not that far away from here, and Luna, Nicol and Athrun is fighting the two other gundams, unfortunately I can't located Rey's ZAKU anywhere right now!" The girl informed them all in a loud tone, while she tried her best to find any signs of Rey's mobile suit.

But there was just way to much interference at the moment, to find something so small as a lonely ZAKU.

Once Gilbert heard the girl say that, he immediately took a small glance over at her.

He wasn't really happy to know that she couldn't find Rey out there, he was after all one of his most trusted loyal fellows, and he truly did cared a lot about the boy, he was just like a son to him.

Which meant he didn't want anything to happen to him, everything would become so much more complicated, if Rey wasn't around on the Minerva, to keep a close eye on Shinn.

But just as he was about to ask if she was sure that he wasn't out there somewhere, Talia cut in and asked yet another question.

"What about Bogey One, have they done anything since we started sending out signals, on the International Distress Channel?" The woman asked, truly wondering if there was anything else they could do, to get in contact with the blue space ship.

They had been using the International Distress Channel in a way try and get in contact with Bogey One, almost since the battle had started.

Yet up until now, it didn't seem like the ship care much about, that they too, where trying to stop the purple GINNs out there, which would most definitely be a much easier task, if their mobile suits didn't have to fight the Chaos, Gaia and Abyss at the same time.

"No it's still not doing anything captain, it pretty much seems like they are ignoring us!" Meyrin said.

Just as one of the screen up there showed the blue space ship flying around in the distance.

Still not doing anything, that made it clear if they understood that the Minerva was not there to help the GINNs out, and that the only thing they want to do, was stop Junius Seven from falling.

And after just watching the enemy ship for a few seconds, Arthur turned and looked back at Talia, where he once again told her his honest opinion about what he thought they should do about Bogey One.

"I know you said before, that it wouldn't do us any good attacking that ship captain, but if we do that, we might be able to force the three gundams in to a withdrawal!" He said in a loud tone, truly hoping that the captain would follow his advice.

Those words did make a thoughtful look ran over Talia's face, as she seriously consider everything Arthur had just said.

But soon after she slowly shook her head, as she looked over at the man.

"I don't think that's a good idea Arthur, even if we do attack them now, we will most likely be wasting valuable time, that would be much better spend on a way for us to try and stop the rest of Junius Seven!" Talia explain, as she again looked out at the view in front of them, still trying to figure out the best way to destroy the rest of the colony.

Hearing her say that and seeing her expression, Gilbert immediately knew that she had something planed.

And he truly hoped that whatever it was, it would be enough to prevent the disaster, that was going to happen in least then fifteen minutes.

So after wondering a bit what was going through her mind he was just about to ask her what exactly she was thinking about, when suddenly Meyrin cut in and told them a few good news.

"Bogey One have just send out an retreat signal, the three gundams are leaving the battlefield!" The red hair girl sai,d in a loud tone that could be heard all over the bridge, as the screen show the Abyss quickly leaving the fight it had been in with the Impulse.

"I guess they finally believed us!" Gilbert say, as they all saw the Impulse turn around and take off towards Junius Seven, quickly cutting down a single lonely GINN, that tried to get in the gundam's way.

But they did not really get much time to watch Shinn fight.

When the captain of the ship began speaking in a somewhat thoughtful tone.

"Yes I agree that it does look that way, but there might just be another reason for their withdrawal. We are after all getting closer and closer to earth, and that means that it wouldn't be long now, before the altitude will began to pull more and more on Junius Seven, so we have to make up our minds now, about what we can save and what we can not!" The woman said, just as the lower parts of the colony began glowing slightly red.

Which was more then enough to make it clear for all of them, that the situation was getting all the more grave.

"So what are we going to do captain?!" Arthur asked, sound very much like he was just about ready to go in to a panic, and one look at his face, showed her that he was getting more concerned, by every small second that went by.

But Talia really didn't have the time to explain it to him now, she instead turned and looked over at the Chairman with a serious expression on her face.

"I think that it's best that you get of here Mr Chairman, the Minerva is going to follow Junius Seven in through the atmosphere, and use the Tannhauser to try and destroy as much of the colony as possible!" The woman said, in a determined tone.

Hearing those determined words leave her mouth, Gilbert did try and came up with something to say back.

But finally he let out a deep sigh, as he slowly stood up and looked directly in to her eyes.

"I guess there it's no use trying to talk you out of it, when you first make up your mind about something, there isn't much that can chance it!" He said, as he turned around and looked over at blond girl, that had been pretty quiet up until now.

"Lets go princess we need to get of this ship before it enters the atmosphere!" He said in a gentle tone, as he reached out to help her up from the chair, she had been sitting in all of this time.

But she on the other hand, just looked up at him with a determined look in both of her eyes, that remind him slightly about the look he had seen on Talia's face.

And it actually surprised him a bit, when he saw her slowly shook her head, as she began talking back to him in the same kind of voice Talia had just used.

"I can't, if the Minerva is going to go through the atmosphere, to try and destroy Junius Seven. Then I want to be right here with them, I know I might not be able to do anything to help. But there is just so many people down there, and even some I care very much about, so I can't just run away at a time like this!" The girl said in a loud tone, not once looking away from the Chairman.

That after nodded slowly in understanding.

"I see, then I wish all of you the best of luck!" he said while slowly letting his eyes ran over all the people gather on the ships bridge, the last one his eyes land on was Talia, that by now had her back turned towards him, busy telling her crew what they where going to do now, and that they need to get their mobile suits, back on the ship in a hurry.

So after watching her a bit more he turned and began making his way over to the door, where he stopped for a few seconds.

"I do look forward to hear news about your success Talia!" He said.

Just before he opened the door and left the ships bridge, with a somewhat thoughtful look on his face. He truly did hope with all of his heart, that the Minerva could somehow accomplish, the mission it was just about to under take.

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Back outside Athrun was now on his own now, seeing as Lunamaria had gotten her ZAKU's head blown of by a shot from the Chaos.

And that meant that somebody had to escort the red haired girl back to the Minerva, to make sure that she wasn't shoot down, in the blinded state her mobile suit had been in.

And even before they could discourse it, Nicol had grabbed on to the red ZAKU and told Athrun that he was going on ahead.

But just as the blue hair teenager was about to head back too, he discovered a flare motor some of the retreating GuAIZ Rs had left behind when they took of.

And even true he knew that it might be a stupid idea, there was no way he want to let that thing go to waste, not when it was so much better used trying to slow down the still descending colony.

Yet while he was trying to find just the best spot to place the device.

The Impulse suddenly came over beside him. "What are you still doing here? You should have gotten the retreat signal already!" The boy said, as he watched the slightly older teen work on getting the flare motor ready.

Taking a brief glance up from what he was doing, it didn't take long before Athrun attention, was once again turned towards the task in front of him.

"You should just hurry up and go Shinn, I know we already got the signal to return to the Minerva, but even if the ship use it's main cannon on whats left of the colony, there is bound to be a damper on how much damage it can make. And if there is a chance I can get this thing to work, it should help out a bit!" Athrun explained in a serious tone, while taking a quick look around for any more threats.

So after making sure, that there was nobody else nearby that wanted to attack him, he once again got back to work on the flare motor.

Just as Shinn flew over and began helping him out.

"I really don't get why you are with Orb, you seem so much smarter, then anybody else down there!" Shinn said, in a tone that made Athrun lift up his head and take a glance over at the Impulse.

But just as he was about to tell Shinn that now was not the right time to be discoursing something like that, an alarm suddenly began making a loud sound inside the ZAKUs cockpit.

Which immediately made him look up, where the first thing he saw was two more of those GINNs, that had been the once responsible for this whole mess.

So after letting out a small curse he hurried took aim with the beam rifle and fired a shoot at each of them.

Unfortunately both of them evade his minor attack and began shooting back.

"You just keep working, I'll take care of those two!" Shinn said in a determined tone of voice.

Just before he took of towards the two hastily approaching GINNs, using his own beam rifle to get them to chance direction, so there was no chance that they would hit the flare motor, while he was busy fighting them.

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Meanwhile back in the Minerva's hangar.

Lunamaria had just gotten out of her ZAKU where the first thing she noticed, was that they where missing both the Impulse and the green ZAKU Athrun had borrowed.

"Where is Shinn and Athrun?!" She asked in a loud tone, and with a worried expression, while looking straight over at Nicol and Rey, who was already busy talking about that.

"We don't know Lunamaria, they are still out there somewhere!" Rey said taking a glance back at his mobile suit, where he quickly let his eyes ran over the machine, until he got to where the right arm was suppose to be.

But he had lost that, while fighting with one of the GINN pilots out there, which had forced him to use all of his missiles to kill whoever was in the GINN.

But as he stood there in his own thoughts about what could be going on outside, Luna grabbed his shoulders, making him look back at her.

"If they are still out there, we have to help them somehow!" The girl said in tone, that could most likely be heard all over the hangar.

Not that anybody was really listening to what the three pilots was talking about, they where all far to busy getting things ready to when the Minerva would enter the atmosphere.

Hearing her said that Nicol moved over beside Luna, where he gently placed his right hand on her arm, which was more then enough to make her look away from Rey and over at him.

"Please try and calm down and take a deep breath Luna, it's not like Rey and I are not worried about them, but there is no way any of us can go out there now, we would be burned alive, if we did try to help them!" Nicol explained, just as a minor shook could be felt through the entire ship.

Which made it clear, that they where in for a very tough ride, but even as that was happening, Luna still had a somewhat angry look on her face.

"Ok I guess you are right Nicol, but they better be all right after this!" The red hair girl said.

Before she turned around to try and find a place where she could sit down for a bit, even true she didn't really show it much, she was quite exhausted after everything they had been through.

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So while that was going on down in the ships hangar, the crew up on the bridge was just as worried about the two boys out there.

But Talia knew that there was no way they could wait for them any longer, not while over half of the population down on earth was in such a serious danger.

"We just have to hope that both of them will be all right, now hurry up and aim the Tannhauser!" The woman order loudly, and it was only a few second later before she yelled out for the weapon to be fired.

But even true it hit right on, Junius Seven kept getting more and more red as it continued it's descend through the atmosphere.

Seeing that Talia didn't waste any time in yelling out for the cannon to be fired one more time at the colony, which did destroy some of the colony, but it was still not enough, there was still way to much of it left that was heading for earth.

"Damn it fire it again and make sure we hit, we don't want to waste any of our fire power now!" The woman said, as the crew once again shoot of the main cannon at Junius Seven.

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At the same time, Shinn had just finished the first of the GINNs and was now heading towards the last one. "Damn it, this is useless!" The boy grumbled loudly, as he quickly throw the beam rifle away.

Not bothering to keep it any longer, he couldn't aim it properly now that everything was shaking so damn much.

So after getting that out of the way, he hurried pulled out one of the beam sabers and took of towards the last of the GINNs, that was busy trying to take out Athrun, who not long ago had gotten the last of the flare motor working.

"You two don't understand anything, don't you realize what they did to us here, how much we suffered because of those Naturals, this is truly and rightfully the only way for us Coordinators to live, the way Patrick Zala want!" The man inside the GINN shouted loudly.

Just as Athrun let out a shocked gasp, at hearing his father's name, being mention at a place like this.

So this person he was fighting with right now, was one of those people that supported the way his father had done things, one of them that truly believe that the only way Coordinators could live in peace, was that all of the Naturals got killed.

And even true Athrun really did want to argue back, and tell this person that he disagree, the boy knew that there was nothing he could say, his father had after all been willing to kill everybody down on earth.

And it didn't really help on his depressed state of mind, that the person in the GINN wasn't done telling him, just how right all of this was.

"Why can't you see that we have to get rid of them all, it's the only way for all of those people that was killed here to rest on peace, my daughters tombstone most fall!" The man yelled.

Just as he and Athrun slammed the two heavy swords together, both of them fighting hard to over win each other.

Hearing the man talk about his daughter like that, Shinn did feel a little sympathy for the man in the GINN. He did after all knew quite well, how it was to lose those he cared about.

But that however didn't mean, he would allow this guy get away with trying to kill everybody down on earth, so once he saw the ZAKU and the GINN move apart.

He hurried charge in and tried to cut the enemy mobile suit in half.

Unfortunately thanks to another shoot from the Minerva, that hit quite close to them.

The only thing he actually succeed in hitting was the right leg on the GINN, and that didn't really make all that much of a different, the bastard inside the GINN, was apparently still quite determined to kill both Athrun and him.

And it was just shortly after that, when Shinn saw the two other mobile suits there fly towards each other, where their weapons was once again slammed together.

Seeing this going on just in front of him, Shinn hurried took a quick look around himself. It was getting so damn warm inside the Impulse right now, and he could already feel, a great deal of sweat running down his face.

Which made him wonder how exactly it was over in the ZAKU, his mobile suit might just be able to make it through all of this.

But the ZAKU wasn't really made for something of this calibre.

And he that really made him think about how they both could get away from here alive, it did however not take him long to realize that the only way, they could get out of there, was to get rid of the lunatic piloting the GINN.

So with that decision made, he once again took of full speed towards the purple mobile suit, still listening with a half ear to what the bastard inside the GINN was saying now.

But this time it was actually getting a bit on his nerves.

Here they where fighting for their lives, and the only thing he did was piss and moan about, how much all the Naturals down there, deserved to have Junius Seven dropped on them.

"Shut the hell up already, we get it now!" The boy in the Impulse yelled loudly.

Just as he used the beam saber to cut of both of the GINNs arms, then gave it a hard kick in it's stomach area, sending it smashing head down in to the colony, where it immediately blow up.

After that Shinn hurried throw the beam saber away, and quickly flew over and grabbed on to the right arm of the ZAKU, then got the thrusts up to full speed, trying to get both of them away from there.

It did however not take long, before he heard Athrun's voice call out to him.

"Shinn! We can't get back to the Minerva now, and that means that the only thing we can do is head down!" Athrun yelled loudly, while trying his best to get some control over the ZAKU.

Not really an easy task under the circumstance they where in right now.

Hearing the older boy said that, Shinn couldn't help but let out a unhappy growl, while he quickly turned the Impulse around and began heading for the green and blue planet, that was waiting below them.

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At the same time down on earth, Murrue Ramius was busy making sure, that all the children that was living with reverend Malchio was present.

After hearing about Junius Seven falling, they had immediately called the reverend and the children to ask them to come over, as quickly as possible.

And after counting them two times, she knew that she was missing one, and just a brief look around, was enough to tell her who it was.

"Mayu Ramius come here this instant, young lady!" The former captain of the Archangel yelled so loud, that she knew that everybody nearby could hear her.

And it did not take long, before a short haired girl, with brown eyes came running over to her, where she immediately looked up at her step-mother with a truly well know frown on her forehead, not that Murrue was effect by that.

"There is no need to yell mom, I just needed to use the bathroom!" The girl explained.

Now doing her best to sound and look as innocent as possible, truly hoping that her step-mom would let her of easy.

But Murrue just shook her head a few times and rolled her eyes, then she hurried reached down and took the girl's hand in a tight grip, making sure that she could not run off again.

Meanwhile not that far away, on one of the balconies that was located on the house.

Kira Yamato was standing together with his wife, looking up at Junius Seven that could now be seen quite clearly on the cloudless night sky, none of them said anything, as they watched the descending colony.

The only way somebody would be able to tell that both of them where worried, was by the way their fingers kept twirling around with each other.

They did however not get much time to just stand there by them self, when suddenly they each heard a familiar voice coming towards them. "That really doesn't look good!" Dearka said in a deeply concerned tone, as he and Miriallia got over beside the married couple.

So now all four of them, was just standing there, watching as Junius Seven continued coming slowly towards earth.

To be continued.


	6. Chapter 6

I'm sorry about the wait, December was kinda hectic for me.

Chapter 6

Shinn and Athrun was hastily making their way through the earth atmosphere, both of them doing everything possible to keep their now almost bright red mobile suits together.

The ZAKU had already lost both of it's legs, because of the extreme temperature they had been exposed to, and the left arm was now slowly melting away.

Not that Athrun cared much about that, in his eyes it was actually a good thing, that way the Impulse wouldn't have nearly as much to carry around.

"Damn it we better get there soon, our else both of us will be toast!" Shinn yelled loudly, somewhat worried that even the Impulse wouldn't be able to handle the heat much longer.

It had after all been exposed to it for quite some time now, and as much as he hated to admit it, there was a limited to how much even a gundam could take.

He did however not have to worry for long before Athrun called out to him. "We are almost through Shinn, so just hold on a bit longer!" The blue hair teenager said, over from the ZAKU.

Just as the right arm Shinn was holding on to snapped in two, which meant that Athrun was now falling straight through the atmosphere, with nothing to slow him down, and there was no doubt in both of their minds, that if he hit the earth surface, with the kind of speed he would get from falling at this high, he would surely get killed.

So without think about it at all, Shinn hurried throw both the ZAKUs arm away and his shield, then took of full speed towards the hasty descending mobile suit.

That he fortunately still could see in the distance. "To hell with it, I damn well hope that this is the last time, I have to fly through the atmosphere like this!" The boy complained loudly, as he carefully reached out and once again took a hold on the almost glowing red ZAKU, this time making sure that his mobile suit would take most of the heat.

"Hey are you all right in there?!" He asked in a frustrated tone.

But unfortunately he couldn't get in contact with the ZAKU.

The only thing he could hear was the static, and that could only mean that the communication was down, which made him yell out a few more curses as the two of them continued on their little trip through the atmosphere.

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Meanwhile far above them the Minerva was yet again firing it's main cannon, this time actually succeeding in blowing Junius Seven apart.

Which of course meant that a great deal of minor piece was now heading for earth, and it was quite obvious that they would still cause a lot of damage when they hit the surface, but not nearly as much as before.

Seeing that Arthur turned and looked back at the captain with a small smile on his face. "We did it captain!" He called out in a loud exciting tone.

But she on the other hand just took a small glance over at him, with a somewhat sceptical expression on her face, even true each of them there had done everything they could to stop the colony from falling, there was no doubt that much down there would still be destroyed by all the pieces.

She did however not think about that for longer, it wasn't like they could do anything else now.

So after taking one last look at the rest of the once so big colony, she slowly turned her eyes over towards the red hair girl up there.

"Meyrin are there any signals from that ZAKU and the Impulse?" The woman asked, truly hoping that the two young pilots was ok.

Hearing the captain ask that, Cagalli quickly turned her attention away from her lap and over at Meyrin, that was quite clearly doing everything to track down their two mobile suits.

But she kept all of them in waiting for a few very long tense seconds, before she finally looked up from her controls.

"I found them, they are both flying around far below us and it looks like they are getting ready to land on the ocean surfaces!" The girl explained, not doing anything to hide, how relieved she was that both of them where all right.

And it was only shortly after that, when the main monitor showed the two mobile suits, it was kinda hard to see what they where doing from this distance.

But it really did looked like Meyrin was right about where the two of them where planing to land.

"Ok make sure to bring us down, as close to them as possible, and get a medical team on standby, if they are hurt in there!" The captain order in a loud tone, as she took a small glance over at the blond girl, where she noticed that she still looked a tiny bit concerned.

Which wasn't really a big surprise to Talia, she already knew that the former Zaft pilot and the Orb Chief Representative had very strong feelings for each other.

And even true she would never say anything about it, she honestly did thought that the two of them where quite an adorable couple.

So after watching the young woman a bit longer, she slowly opened her mouth and began talking in a reassuring tone.

"I really don't think you have to worry, I'm sure he is all right!" Talia said while smiling a bit at the blond girl, that was now looking directly over at her with a slightly confused expression on her face.

Which made it kinda obvious that the blond girl had been far away in her own thoughts, when Talia had began talking to her, and now she was clearly trying to figure out what she should said back.

It did however take a few minutes, before Cagalli found her voice again.

"Thank you captain Gladys, you are right I am worried about him, but there are just so many things that a bound to happen after everything that has happened, and I most admit I'm also a bit worried about the worlds reaction!" The blond haired girl said, while thinking hard about what the other politicians back in Orb had to say about this.

She already had a pretty good idea about, what that idiot to Yuna and his father would say to all of this.

Those two had really been on her case for the last few months.

Especially about the whole arranged marriage thing to Yuna, had been taken up more then it's share of times now, and it seriously was getting old, she might not have said anything about it to anybody, not even Athrun.

But she had really been working her butt off, trying to find away out of that stupid engagement.

There was just no way in hell she would marry that purple hair moron, she would rather drown herself then live together with him for the rest of her days.

And she really wonder why the hell her father thought it was necessary to punish her by arranging a engagement, with someone who Cagalli seriously believed hadn't been able to use his brain even once in his entire life.

But her thoughts about how worthless and pathetic the purple hair man was, got brought to a hold when one of the ships crew members, told them that they where just about ready to land, near the Impulse and the ZAKU.

Hearing that Cagalli immediately turned her attention away from her lap and over at the man who had just spoken, she was just about to ask him how the pilots was doing, when Talia beat her to it.

"So any sign of life from our two daring pilots?" The woman asked, with a serious look on her face that made it very clear, that she was just as concerned about the two teenagers, as the rest of them.

"It's hard to tell captain, Nicol is already heading out there to pick them up!" The same man as before explained in a loud tone.

Just as the hangar was open and they could now all see the yellow GOUF slowly leaving the Minerva and heading over to where the gundam and the rest of the ZAKU was.

And it was only a few short minutes later, when they saw the GOUF reached down to pick up the two other machines.

And once it had a good hold on both of them, it began flying just as slowly back towards them.

Seeing that Cagalli couldn't get herself to stay up there any longer, she quickly jumped up on her feet and ran full speed out of the bridge, before anybody up there had the time to say anything to her.

And it was actually first after the door flew shut behind her, that the crew realized that she was gone.

Seeing that their blond passenger had now disappeared, Arthur slowly blinked a few times, he just couldn't help but feel a bit surprised that the girl had been able to leave the bridge, without anybody seeing it.

"Hmm I guess she was pretty worried about her bodyguard!" The man said, as he slowly looked away from the door and out at the GOUF.

Just as it once again enter the hangar, carrying both the Impulse and the rest of the ZAKU.

Hearing him say that Talia looked down at him for a few seconds, a bit baffled over the fact that he hadn't realized yet, that their two guests had a much, much closer relationship, then a normal bodyguard and a client had.

But now that she was really giving it some thought, it didn't take long for her to realize, that he really wasn't the brightest person when it came to stuff like that.

And she wonder a bit if she should tell him that the two of them where a pair, but once he asked her what they where suppose to do now, she quickly got her mind over on the matter at hand.

"We ain't really that far away from Orb territory, so I think it would be best that we get those two home first, and it should be easy enough to get in there, when you think about who we have on board, and it's not like the Minerva can handle a long voyage, in the condition it's in now" Talia said, thinking about how much damage the ship had taken, while flying through the atmosphere.

Going over all the captain's words in his mind, Arthur got a somewhat thoughtful look on his face, as he wonder slightly, if it was really a good idea to let somebody that was not a part of Zaft, look the Minerva over.

There was just so many important things on the grey space ship, that might get copied and somehow used against them.

But one small look at the captain's face was more then enough to tell him that she wasn't really that concerned.

It was almost like she hadn't given it any thought at all, and that made him decide that once, he was alone with the woman, he would make sure to bring all of his concerns about Orb looking over the ship, to her attention.

But for now it was most likely best not to say anything about it, he did not want to worry the rest of the crew, all of them truly did deserved some rest after all of this.

But even as he made that decision, he still couldn't help but ask the captain one small thing.

"Do you really think it's a good idea, to let Orb repair the ship?" He asked in a quiet tone, that made it quite clear that he was still thinking very hard about all of this.

Hearing that question Talia again looked over at him, where she gave him a small smile.

"I'm sure it's going to be all right Arthur, it's not like we ain't going to be there to keep an eye on them, you can be certain that I wouldn't even let them near the Minerva, if we and the rest of the crew where not on board" the captain explained, in a calm tone.

But even turn those words did calm him down a bit, she knew her Deputy Captain was still worried.

And she had no doubt that it wouldn't be long, before she would need to get in to a serious conversation with him.

But as for now she would really be grateful if she could just get out of there, and go get a nice warm cup of coffee, unfortunately there was still a few things she need to do before she could leave.

So after just sitting there for a few seconds, in her own thoughts.

She slowly lifted her head and gave the crew a few orders.

And it wasn't much later before the Minerva was slowly making it's way to Orb, while Meyrin was busy telling her about all the things on the ship, that need to be looked over, before it was once again, fully ready for combat.

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At the same time Cagalli had just gotten down to the hangar where she saw Shinn on his way down from the Impulse, where the red hair girl and a few others was waiting for him.

Seeing that he was all right, she hurried walked over to the green ZAKU that was laying on the floor.

And it didn't take more then a few minutes, before the ZAKU was open, and she saw the person she loved come out of the machine.

Holding on to his helmet with the left hand and using the other to try and wipe away some of the sweat on his forehead.

And even true she was still standing a bit away from him, she could still clearly hear that he was breathing quite hard, it almost sound a bit like he was having trouble getting air down in to his lungs.

"Athrun! are you ok up there?!" She asked loudly, not doing a thing to hide, how worried she was about him right now.

Hearing her question, he turned and looked down at her, where he nodded yes a few times, and once again trying to remove some of the liquid, that was still running down his face.

Seeing what the problem was Cagalli quickly turned and was about to ran of to find something cold for him to drink.

But she didn't even take a single step, before she noticed that Nicol was standing right behind her handing her a bottle full of water.

"Here you go miss Cagalli, now please hurry up and give him some of it!" The green haired man said, in his usual kind tone.

Quickly taking the bottle Cagalli nodded her thanks and ran over to the long ladder some of the mechanics had placed up against the ZAKU. it didn't take her much time, before she too was up on the mobile suit.

Immediately making her way over to Athrun, that was now sitting quietly on the machine, obviously still trying to cold down, after everything he and Shinn had been through.

Once she got over beside him, she hurried hand him the bottle full of the refreshing liquid.

"Here you go, please drink!" She told him in a loud tone, that made it clear that she was still very worried about him right now.

Not that Athrun noticed, he was far to busy at the moment satisfying his thirst, so while he was doing that, Cagalli slowly reached up and used her sleeve to gently wipe away some of the sweat that was still on his face.

Feeling that Athrun removed the bottle from his mouth and gave her a grateful smile, before he again took a big mouthful of the cold liquid, truly enjoying having it ran down his almost completely dry throat.

Then after drinking just a bit more, he slowly reached out and took Cagalli's hand in a tight grip, where he immediately gave it a soft squeeze.

"I'm sorry that I worried you" he said in a small tone, that only she could hear.

Hearing him said that, Cagalli couldn't help but smile a bit, as she moved over and slowly moved both of her arms up around him.

"I'm just so happy that you are ok!" Cagalli said, now sounding much more calm then before, he however just nodded a few times, as the two of them continued sitting there for a long time, just holding each other in their small embrace.

It was just about the same time, that they both heard someone let out a loud exhaust sigh, which made both of them turn around just a bit, where they each noticed Nicol was sitting beside them, having a small tired smile on his face.

"So Athrun other then being almost boiled alive, are you ok?" The green hair teen, asked as he slowly laid down on the ZAKU, looking straight up at the ceiling.

So after thinking a few seconds about what his friend had just asked him, Athrun got a somewhat sad look in both of his eyes, as he thought about what the last of the terrorists had said about his father.

All of those guys they had just been fighting with, where all people that truly had believed everything his father had said two years ago.

And even true it had been that long, it was still somewhat painful for him to think about what the man who had raised him had want to do.

And he wonder slightly if he would ever be able to think about his father again with the same kind of respected he once had for him, but as he was sitting there thinking about that.

Both Nicol and Cagalli of course noticed the strange look on his face.

Which made Cagalli tighten the grip she already had on his hand.

"What's wrong Athrun?" She asked in a gentle tone.

Which immediately made him turn and look right over at her, where he saw that she had a caring yet somewhat concerned look in both of her eyes, and it was clear that no matter what was bothering him, she was ready to listen to everything he had to tell her.

Truly happy to know that, Athrun gave her a sad smile, as he tried to figure out if it was really a good idea to tell her and Nicol about it.

But finally after sitting there for a few long minutes.

He decide that it wouldn't really hurt that the two of them knew about it, so after letting out a small breath, he slowly began telling them about what the last GINN pilot had said.

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Meanwhile down on the floor, Shinn was busy telling a few of his friends about how it had been flying through the atmosphere, a small part of him just couldn't help but feel a bit proud, that he had been able to do something that dangerous, while carrying an almost destroyed ZAKU at the same time.

It really made him feel like he was getting better.

And he was already looking a bit forward to the next time, he would be able to test his skills against somebody powerful, most preferably the three stolen gundams.

But for now he wouldn't mind getting a little shut eye, fighting all of those morons was really exhausting, and he could truly use a good night of sleep.

But as he sat there thinking about that, his eyes land over on the Athha girl, that was busy talking with Athrun and Nicol.

Even after all of this time, having her on board he still couldn't stand the sight of her.

She just sat there talking like such a good little girl, like there was nothing wrong at all, like everything was just so damn perfect, but even true he honestly want to tell her just how much he hated her, he knew it was a very stupid idea.

Nicol had told him very strictly after his last fight with the blond girl, that he shouldn't bully a leader of a country, if it had been anybody else, other then Cagalli it could have turned in to a international incident.

And that was nothing something Shinn would like to have hanging over his head, so if he didn't have anything nice to say to the girl, it was best for him to just leave her alone.

But even after being told all of that, he still hated her with a passion.

And it was only when Luna asked him, what in the world he was glaring at now, that he got his mind away from the stupid blond bitch, and back to the people he was still in the middle of a conversation with.

"Ohh sorry about that Luna, I just had my mind over on something else" he explained, while scratch his neck a few times.

Hearing that excuse Luna slowly rolled both of her eyes a single time.

"Yeah right, just don't do anything stupid, I seriously don't think the captain would be happy to know, you got in to another fight with her!" The red hair teen said in a slightly bossy tone, that told Shinn that she was serious about what she had just told him.

That however did not mean he had to be happy about it.

"Ahhh damn it, why can't you guys just relax, I already promised Nicol that I wouldn't go near her, so will you please get of my case Lunamaria, truth is I was just wondering why the hell somebody would want to go out with her?" Shinn said. using the first thing he could come up with as an excuse for glaring at the blond hair girl, that even now was busy talking with Athrun and Nicol.

Those few words did make Luna turn, and take a small glance in the same direction as Shinn, where she immediately noticed that both Athrun and the blond girl was holding hands.

And even true it wasn't much, she couldn't help but feel just a tiny bit jealous, her interested in the young Zala had raised quite a bit. Especially after seening how well he was doing against the Chaos and the Gaia.

"Ok I would actually like to know that too Shinn, I mean how in the world did a former Zaft pilot end up together with a person like her?" Luna asked, while the two of them continued standing there watching the young couple.

Each of them obviously trying to figure out, the answers to their own questions.

It did however not take long, before somebody that had been listening to everything the two of them had said, gave his opinion on the subject.

"Well I really don't get why the two of you are complaining, I for one think she is cute, and I honestly wouldn't mind having a pretty girlfriend, just like her" Vino said from where he was standing next to them.

Which immediately got the two pilots attention over on him, where they each gave him an angry glare that looked very much like it could kill him any minute now.

And just seeing the looks they where sending him, he hurried took a big step away from him, he really didn't want to risk getting hit or something like that, fortunately there was somebody nearby that agreed with him.

"Ahh stop glaring you two, I also think she looks cute and there is not a damn thing you two can do about it, me and Vino have the right to our own opinion!" Yolant said, giving the two pilots the same kind of look back.

Which was apparently was enough, to make the two of them turn around, and walk of with very loud steps, that could be heard all over the hangar.

Seeing them leave like that both mechanics couldn't help but let out a small sigh, as they watched Luna and Shinn began talking with Rey, that was busy looking over his ZAKU.

"Some times I really don't get those two, before we got in to the last battle, Luna seemed to be ready to kill Shinn at any moment, but now just because we said that miss Cagalli looks cute, they are friends once again, and now it almost seems like they are just about ready to take out their anger on us!" Vino said, truly wondering how the two pilots could make up so quickly.

Think a few short seconds about his friend's words, Yolant nodded a few times in agreement.

"Yeah no kidding, it really is strange that they can be quarreling at one minute, then be ready to beat the crap out of us the next" the mechanic said, still keeping an eye out for Luna and Shinn.

Just in case they where coming back, he truly didn't feel like getting hit by any of them right now.

Truth be told the only thing he really want to do, was get out of there and get a few hours of sleep.

And just the thought about getting in to his bed, was more then enough to make him let out a big yawn, that he didn't even bother to cover up.

It was just about the same time, that they all heard the captain's voice over the speakers, telling the crew just where exactly the Minerva was heading, and that all of them should use the time to get some sleep.

Hearing that, Vino immediately thrust his fist up in to the air.

"YES! That's just what I want to hear, I'm out of here!" The boy yelled in a loud tone, as he ran full speed out of the hangar, determined to get something to eat, then sleep until he was just about 50 years old, or at the very least until somebody woke him up.

Seeing his friend leave with such a hurry, Yolant slowly shook his head as he walked after Vino out of the hangar, muttering something about that he could at least, have wait for him.

"Well I guess, I'm not the only one who is tired!" The boy said, just as he stepped out of the hangar, walking in a much more calm pace then his friend, that had left so fast, that he almost trip over a few things.

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At the same time over by the white ZAKU somebody wasn't really to thrilled about knowing where they where going.

Just the whole idea about setting foot in that damn country again was almost enough to make him sick.

He truly hated Orb with every single fiber of his being, and if he had a choice in the matter he would much rather jump in the ocean right now, and swim to some place that had nothing to do with that idiotic country.

"Damn it! Damn it all!" He cursed loudly, while giving the tool box he was standing next to a hard kick, making everything inside it fly out over the floor.

Not that he cared much about, the only thing on his mind right now was getting out of there in a hurry, before anybody could began talking to him, he especially need to get away from a certain dumb blond girl, he despised almost as much as he despised Orb.

So without giving anybody down there a second look, he marched out of the hangar, with loud steps that could be heard all over the place.

Which wasn't really much of a surprise, seeing as everybody down there had pretty much stopped whatever they where doing, when he had taken out his anger and frustration on the tool box.

It was only once he was out of sight, that people began talking again, this time a bit more quietly then before.

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Seeing the Impulse pilot leave in such away Cagalli couldn't help but let out a sad sigh.

It wasn't really the whole thing about him hating Orb, that made her feel a little depressed, it was more the thing with him blaming her for losing his family.

That really made it hurt inside.

It was not like she was happy with everything that happened two years ago, she too had lost so many people she cared about, her father and three of her best friends.

And not that she would say anything about it, but she did honestly hated those guys that took them away from her. So it wasn't really that strange that Shinn despised her as much as he did, if she had been in his shoes, she would most likely had felt exactly the same way.

"Hmm he really does hate me and Orb a lot!" Cagalli said in a somewhat quiet tone, as she again looked up at her two friends.

Hearing her say that, the two boys beside her looked over at her, where they immediately noticed the depressed expression on her face.

Seeing that Nicol couldn't help but feel a little sorry for her. "If you want me to, miss Cagalli I could got talk with him about it" the former Blitz pilot offered in a kind tone.

Which made Cagalli slowly lift her head and look over at the green hair boy, where she slowly shook her head.

"No it's all right Nicol, he did after all lost his entire family back in Orb, and even true I'm honestly deeply sorry it happened, it doesn't really chance anything, so I can understand why he hates me so much" the blond haired girl said, thinking back to what Shinn had said to her the first time she had met the boy.

Looking at her for a few a small minutes, Nicol nodded slowly in understanding.

"I see miss Cagalli, I just seriously hope he doesn't continue staying mad like that, the whole time we are in Orb" the green hair man said, as he thought about what kinda nightmare that could be.

It wasn't really that entertaining being around Shinn too much when he was on a rampage.

Quickly going over everything Nicol had just said to him, Athrun gave his friend a sad smile.

"I'm sure he will be fine Nicol, once he gets some rest and colds down a bit. After everything we been through, it's not really surprising that we are all a bit on edge right now, and it's certainly not like he is the first short temper pilot the two of us has meet" Athrun said, thinking briefly about how Yzak had behaved whenever he was in a bad mood.

"Yeah you are properly right Athrun, but now that I think about it, I do believe that it would be wise to follow miss Gladys advice and get some rest, I might not have gone through the atmosphere like you and Shinn did, but I am quite exhaust" Nicol said, while using his right hand to cover up a big yawn, he just couldn't keep in any longer.

Looking a bit at each other both Athrun and Cagalli could only agree with everything Nicol had said.

"That's a good idea Nicol, truth be told I could actually use a cold shower right about now" Athrun said.

As he stood up and stretched both arms up over his head, after that the three of them slowly got down from the wrecked ZAKU and began making their way out of the now almost empty hangar.

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It didn't really take all that long before, Athrun and Cagalli had said good-night to Nicol, and was now walking slowly together towards their own room on the ship, with Cagalli head resting on Athrun's right shoulder.

But even as they where walking down the Minerva's somewhat quiet halls the blond girl could stop herself from taking a few worried glance up at the one she loved.

"Are you ok Athrun, you still look a bit sad?" She asked almost in a whisper, that made him look right back at her with a far away look in both of his eyes.

Which made it very clear for her, that he still had a great deal of things he need to think about, which wasn't really that big a shock, with everything the last of the terrorists had said to him.

And just seeing him look so sad and depressed, made Cagalli feel a small twinge deep inside of her heart. she already knew without a doubt, that she loved Athrun with all of her being.

Yet there was not a single thing she could do, to make him feel better about all of this.

"I....I...think I'll be all right Cagalli, it's just hard for me to believe that there are still people in this world that would do something like that, I truly didn't think that even after being dead for two years, that my father would somehow be involved, in the whole Junius Seven drop!" The blue hair teen said, in a deeply disappointed tone, just as he saw the face of his father telling him that all of the Naturals had to be killed.

Hearing him say that Cagalli stopped and immediately pulled him in to a tight embrace, slowly running both of her hands up and down his back.

"I really wish, I knew what I could say to make you feel better Athrun, I really hate that I can't do anything to help you right now, even true I want to so badly" She said in a caring yet sad voice, that truly showed Athrun how much she want to be there for him.

And just knowing that, he couldn't help but smile a bit, as he slowly lifted up both of his arms and wrapped them around her.

"I'm glad we are together Cagalli, and I know that you want to help me, which I'm grateful for, but you don't have to feel sad about not knowing what to say to me, even I can't find any words to describe how I feel at the moment, I somehow wish that I had done more to try and stop him back then!" Athrun said, thinking about how hateful his father's face had looked, the very last time he had talked with him.

After he had said those words, the two of them stood there for a long time, with their arms wrapped securely around each other.

But finally after a few quiet minutes had gone by, Cagalli pulled just a bit away from him and looked in to his green eyes.

"Please don't blame yourself Athrun, there was no way you could have know that any of this would have happened back then, and I truly do think you did everything you could to stop him" she said, not once moving her gaze away from his.

Seeing the caring look she had on her face right now, was enough to make Athrun feel a little better about the whole thing, so after watching her for a few seconds, he once again moved in and hugged her tightly.

"Thank you Cagalli, that really does make me feel a little better" he said, while he reached down and softly took her hand in a gentle hold, and began leading her the rest of the way, back to their room.

Which wasn't really that far away.

Once they got there Athrun took a look down at himself, he really looked forward to get out of this space suit and get a cold shower, being dressed in this damn thing for such a long time, wasn't really something he liked.

It wasn't really a big secret, that most pilots had a tough time when they where out in battle, and that of course meant that most of them would sweat a great deal.

And Athrun was really no different.

But just as he was about to unzip the space suit, he noticed that Cagalli was looking at him with a small naughty grin on her face.

That both made Athrun roll his eyes a single time, but also his face a little red. "Do you mind looking away Cagalli, I really needs to take a shower now" the boy said sounding just a little embarrassed.

"Ahhh come on Athrun it's not like I haven't seen you naked before!" The girl said, as the grin on her face got even bigger.

Seeing that he once again rolled his eyes at her, as he reached out and took her hand one more time.

Carefully helping her stand up from the bed, she had been sitting on since the two of them enter the room, and once she was up on both of her feet, he gently pulled her with him towards the small shower that was in the room.

"Well if you are really that curious about what's under this space suit, I think it's only fair that I see what's under your clothes too Cagalli" he said giving her the same kind of look back.

And it was only when he opened the door to the shower room, that she let out a light giggled and told him, that she liked his suggestion very much.

With that the two them quickly disappeared in to the shower, and shut the door behind them.

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At the same time some place else on the Minerva.

Meyrin was slowly walking through the ships halls heading for her sister's room.

She hadn't really had the chance to talk with her since the whole Junius Seven mess had started, which meant it was first now, that she had the time to go talk with her older sibling, she still felt a little guilty about what she had last said to her.

So now she was determined to give her an apology before she turned in, it was just about that time she reached her sister's room, where she stood by the door for a little bit trying to figure out what she should said.

But finally she slowly reached out and gave the door a small knock.

"Sis are you in there? If you have a few minutes, I would like to talk to you" she said, hoping that Luna wouldn't say something like they could talk tomorrow, and that she want to sleep now.

But her big sister didn't disappointed her, as she immediately got a response from inside the room.

"Ok Meyrin come in, I'm just reading right now, and I can always do that later!" Luna said in a tone, that told Meyrin that she was disturbing a bit.

Which got Meyrin to promise herself, that she wouldn't stay in there too long, it wasn't really that strange that her sister want some peace and quiet, after everything that had happened today.

So with that in mind, she quickly opened the door and stepped inside, where she saw Luna laying on her bed dressed in a red pyjamas, and with a thick book in her hands that Meyrin couldn't see the title of.

But if she knew her sister right, it was either a cheesy romance novel or some kind of fantasy story, that was typically what her sister would read, unlike herself that preferred a good Science fiction novel.

She did however not get much time to think about her and Luna's reading habits.

Before her sister slowly closed the book, and placed it on small night desk that was standing beside her bed.

After that she let out a small yawn and stretched both of her arms up over her head, while she slowly turned and looked directly over at her little sister, that had yet to move since she enter her room.

"So Meyrin what is up?" Lunamaria asked not, doing a thing to hide that she was completely worn out, and that she truly want to sleep right now.

And just one small glance at her younger sister, was more then enough to tell her, that she too was pretty much ready to get in to the nears bed, and get a few hours of well deserved sleep.

So Luna seriously hoped that this wouldn't take too long, she really didn't want to get angry at her sister one more time.

Fortunately she didn't have anything to worry about, as Meyrin slowly lowed her head and looked down at the floor.

"I just want to say, that I'm sorry about what I said before sis!" The youngest of the two red hair girls said, still not looking up from the floor, as she stood there waiting to hear what her only family member on board the Minerva, had to say to her apology.

And much to her big relief, she did not have to stand around there for long, before Luna called out to her.

"It's all right Meyrin, I'm not angry at you any more, it's not like you say those things to me on purpose, I was after all complaining a lot about Shinn back then, so I guess that I can't really blame you for not listening" Luna said, while giving her little sister a caring smile.

Seeing that, Meyrin of course smiled right back. "I'm glad we got that out of the way big sis" she said.

Once more trying to see the title of the book, where she noticed that she had been right about the whole cheesy romance novel, which made her wonder a bit how her sister could read something like that.

But she knew that it was a bad idea to ask about it.

She had already done that a few times before, and it always end up with the two of them at each others throats, and there truly was no need to start a new argument, after they had after all just made up.

Noticing just how Meyrin was looking at her book, Luna immediately knew what was going through her little sisters mind.

But she too really didn't feel like getting in to that discoursing right now, she just couldn't understand why Meyrin didn't like books like this, it was always so exciting and interesting to see how, the main couple would end up together.

If they actually did that, sometimes one of the main characters did die at the end, something she really didn't like, she truly preferred a happy ending over a sad one.

But as she laid there thinking about that, Meyrin suddenly interrupted her thoughts. "I think I'll be going now big sis, I hope you sleep well, good-night" she called out, as she turned around and was just about to leave the room.

When Luna call back for her to sleep well too, which made her look back at her sister where she nodded a single time, before she slowly left the room, without saying anything else.

Happy that Meyrin hadn't want to talk for more then a few short minutes, Lunamaria quickly got comfortable in her bed, truly enjoying the feeling of the soft pillow, against her cheek.

"I wonder, what's going to happen when we get to Orb tomorrow, I have never been there before, and I really do look forward to take a small look around, once we get there" she mumbled quietly to herself.

Just as she drifted of in to a deep sleep.

To be continued.

Hey guys, I just want to tell you, that there will be a lot more of Kira and Lacus in the next chapter, not to mention Mayu.

I'll try and hurry up, so it wouldn't take as long as this one.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

After spending a somewhat peaceful night together with his lovely girlfriend.

Athrun was now taking another trip around the ship, he and Cagalli had been forced to stay on for such a long time.

And even true he seemed to be in a good mood this morning, he still had a deep thoughtful look on his face, and it was quite obvious for those few people that past him, that the blue hair teenager had a lot of things on his mind, at the moment.

But as he was making his way down yet another hall on the ship.

He suddenly heard a few gun shoots not that far away from him, which immediately got him to stop in his tracks, and now he just stood there for a second or two, trying to figure out what was happening now.

But once he heard two more shoots, he realized that he was most likely getting quite close to the ships shooting range.

So after letting out a small breath, he again continued down the halls, ignoring the next few shots he heard.

It did however not take him long to find the place, where the gun shots was coming from, where he saw both Rey and Shinn practicing hard with their firearms.

And it didn't take much time for him to noticed, that each of them seemed quite good with the weapons, but it quickly became obvious that Shinn using just a bit more time to aim then Rey did.

But his thoughts about their shooting abilities was soon interrupted, when a familiar female voice began talking right behind him.

"Hey Athrun, what are you doing here so early in the morning?" Luna asked a bit curious.

Normally the only people down here in the morning hours was Shinn, Rey and herself, and at a few rare occasions Nicol too, who apparently wasn't there at the moment, but that didn't really surprise her a lot.

"I'm not really doing anything down here, I was just talking a small walk around the ship, when I end up here" Athrun explained, while smiling a bit at the red hair girl, before he continued watching Shinn and Rey practicing with their guns.

Seeing that he wasn't in the mood to talk right now, Luna walked past him and got over beside Shinn, where she immediately aimed her own weapon at the target in front of her.

And it was only a few minor seconds later, before she fired a single shot, that flew far past what she was had originally been aiming the gun at.

Once that happened, the red hair girl couldn't help but let out a few minor angry curses, as she once again took aim and fired a shot, not having any more luck this time, then the first.

"Damn, why is this so hard?" She quietly asked herself, again firing the deadly black weapon at the human like target, this time hitting the right shoulder, which made a small yet happy smile ran over her lips.

But it didn't take long before it was replace by a deep frown instead.

Why the hell was Shinn and Rey so much better at this then she was, all three of them had gone through pretty much the same training.

Yet here she was not hitting anything important, while they always hit the more vital parts on their targets.

And just the sight of how well they where actually using their guns, was more then enough to make her a little angry, she just didn't get why there was such a big different in their shooting abilities.

So she decided to watch them a bit, to try and figure out what she was doing wrong.

But she just couldn't grasp, what she was doing so different then those two.

And when Shinn fired a shot straight in to the forehead of his target, then turned and gave her a small teasing smile while lifting the gun up to his mouth pretending to blow the smoke away.

She immediately got a determined expression on her face, there was no way she was going to take this small challenge sitting down.

And with that in mind she quickly turned and took aim at her targets forehead, even true she was concentrating quite hard at the moment the bullet still missed what she had been aiming at.

Which was enough to make her let out a small angry growl sound, that clearly showed the three boys, that she was in a very bad mood right now.

But just as she was about to fire of yet another bullet from the gun, somebody there gave her some advice.

"Try and relax a bit, you wouldn't hit anything when you tensed up like that!" Athrun said, over from where he was leaning against the door frame, hearing the former Zaft red said that.

Lunamaria hurried took a small glance back at him, where she saw that he was still watching the three of them practice.

So after thinking a bit about his advise, she again turned and aim at the target.

This time however, she made sure to take a few deep breath before she pressed down on the trigger, making a single bullet leave the gun and fly full speed towards the target, where it scratch just the side of the head.

"Yes that's more like it!" The red hair girl cheered loudly, truly happy with the resulted.

She did however not do that for long, before she turned and again looked at Athrun. "Want to try it out?" She asked, while holding the hand gun out to him.

But much to her disappointment, he just shook his head a few times, while telling her that he preferred to just watch them train. Hearing him say that Luna got a small frown on her forehead, as she quickly got over in front of him.

"Ahh come on now, we all saw how well you did in a mobile suit yesterday, and I would like very much to see how well you handle a gun, you might not even realize but you are actually a bit famous on this ship. You where after all the one who defeat the supposedly undefeatable Strike gundam, and you where also the piloted of the ZGMF-X09A Justice, that took down GENESIS at Jachin Due!" Luna said, as she tried to figure out if there was anything she had left out.

But while she was doing that, she did not noticing the far away look the blue hair teen now had on his face.

He seriously didn't like being reminded of how close, he had come to murder his best friend, that time when he had thought, that Kira was going to hurt Nicol.

And one had to be pretty insane to think about GENESIS all that much, it wasn't really those kind of memories one would cherish forever.

It did however not take long before the girl snapped him back out of his thoughts, when she apparently remember something else he had done, at some point in time.

"Ohh and I also heard back at the academy, that you where the one to take out the Earth Forces Forbidden Gundam!" She said a bit proud, that she had found yet another thing he should have done.

Hearing her say that Athrun couldn't help but think about how he had destroyed the Forbidden Gundam.

And it was one more of those things, he really didn't like to think about, that guy had after all been very close to take the girl he loved away from him.

So after just standing there looking at the red hair ZAKU pilot for a few minutes, he slowly reached out and took the gun away from her, then walked over to the place where she had just been.

Once there he pressed down on a button to begin a new round, then he hurried took aim and fired a shoot directly between the eyes of the target, then with out even looking away a seconds fired of one more bullet this time at the forehead, only to follow it up with one more shot, that hit the place where the heart was suppose to be.

After that he placed the gun on the table in front of him and looked back at the girl.

"It's an ok skill to have, but I don't really find it very useful!" Athrun explained, as he began walking over towards the door, determined to get out of there before they could ask him for another demonstration.

But he hadn't really gotten all that far, before Luna again began talking to him.

"I think it's a very useful skill, it's important to know how to use a gun to protect yourself and your friends against the enemy!" Luna said. while reaching out after the gun looking it over for a few seconds, wondering how he could use the same weapon so much better than her, and how she could get just as good with a gun as he was.

But she really didn't get all that much time to think about it, before she noticed that Athrun was looking at her, with a weird expression on his face.

But just before she could say anything about it, he asked her a very strange question.

"So just who are your enemies exactly?" He asked, while slowly turning away from her and walked out of the shooting ranges, before she even had to time to come up with a reply, to what he had just asked her.

And it was only when Shinn said, that the enemy would always be the opponents standing in front of them, that she snapped back out of her confused state.

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It was about a half hour later, when Cagalli and Athrun enter the Minerva's bridge, where Talia immediately turned and looked back at them.

"Good morning you two, I hope that both of you slept well, even with everything we went through yesterday!" The woman said.

As she gave both teenagers a kind smile, but it was only Cagalli that return it, while Athrun walked over to the window, and just stood there for a bit, looking out at the clear blue ocean.

Seeing that the boy wasn't in the mood to talk, Talia again looked over at the girl.

"We are not really that far away from Orb now, so I would like for you to stay up here when we get there, in case they want some kind of proof, that you are on this ship" the woman said, as she also took a small glance out at the beautiful view.

It really was an amazing sight, and she kinda wish that she had more time, to really enjoy take it all in.

But they did not have the time for something like that, this was not a vacation.

Each and every crew member on the ship had a job to do, especially with all the thing they had been through with Junius Seven, it was important that all of them gave it everything they had in them.

"Ok captain, but do you have any idea about how far away we are?" The blond girl asked, sounding just a bit eager, she was really looking forward to see, Lacus, Kira and Mayu again, it had after all been some time now since she last had the opportunity to visit them.

But even true that was actually what she really want to do when they got to Orb, she highly doubt she would get very much time for something like that, with that fool to Yuna and his father breathing down her neck.

Looking at the young woman for a second or two, Talia was just about to give her a reply, when she noticed the somewhat far away expression she had on her face.

Which made her wonder slightly what she was thinking about.

It was obviously very important for the blond girl, and it was quite clear that it had at least something to do with the young Zala, the girl just couldn't stop herself from taking a few glances over at him.

Not that he noticed, he was far to busy watching the view from the bridge.

"We should be there in about a half hour, if all goes well!" Talia said making both of them turn and look over at her. And just one small glance at each of their faces, was more then enough to tell her that she had obviously interrupted both of them in their thoughts.

But there wasn't really anything she could do about that, and just as she was about to say something else to them.

One of the other people up there, beat her to it and began talking in a loud tone.

"Captain we got three Murasames, coming towards us with great speed, and somebody is trying to get in contact with us, I'm putting them through right now!" Bart said, as he turned and looked over at Cagalli waiting for the young woman, to tell the Orb mobile suits that they where not a threat.

And it wasn't much later before the blond girl was talking loudly with the Orb forces, that had been send out there to greet them, and it didn't really take all that much time, before the grey Zaft space ship was permitted to enter the country.

Which meant that the ship continued on it's present course, this time at a much slower speed.

But even with that it only took about ten minutes before they could all see land, and to many of the crews surprise this was an even more lovely sight then seeing the bright blue ocean.

"You really do have a beautiful country miss Cagalli!" Talia said in a loud tone with a small smile on her face, as she took a small glance over at the blond woman that at this moment, standing over beside her boyfriend.

Both of them clearly enjoying the sight before them.

Hearing the captain of the ship said that, Cagalli slowly turned and looked back at the brown hair woman, where she immediately gave her a small yet grateful smile.

"Thank you captain Gladys, that nice of you to say!" the blond girl said, as she again turned and took a look back out of the window, where her smile declined just a bit, she really was happy to be home again.

But there was just a few things here she really didn't look forward to see, and she already knew that once the Minerva had docked, Yuna would be there waiting for her, she just didn't felt like dealing with him right now.

And it really didn't help her hatred towards the purple haired man, that every time he and Athrun would come face to face, Yuna would do everything, to rube in that the two of them where engaged.

And just thinking about some of the things, he had done in the pasted.

Was more then enough for her to want to strangle the annoying bastard, and she had very little doubt in her mind, that it wouldn't be long now, before she once again would experienced those feelings.

The only thing that did cheer her up a bit right now, was the thought about Yuna falling in to the harbor and drowning by accident.

But she seriously doubt, something like that would ever happen, she just wasn't so fortunate.

But she could at least hope it would even if he didn't drown, it would still be funny as hell, and just the idea of seeing him in the water yelling for somebody to get him out of there, was all the blond girl need to get a small wicked grin on her face.

That the boy next to her noticed almost immediately, and after knowing the blond girl for such a long time, he of course knew what the grin meant, she was thinking something mischievous about somebody.

But if it was who he thought it was, he really didn't mind it, but a small part of him was actually little interested, in hearing if he was right about who it was.

"What exactly are you thinking about Cagalli?" He whispered to her in a small tone, being very careful that all the other people up there, couldn't hear what he was saying.

Hearing him asked, that Cagalli hurried looked away from the window, and over at the boy beside her.

"It's nothing really, I was just hoping that something fun would happen once we get of the Minerva" she told him with a innocent smile on her face, as she once again began daydreaming, about how entertain it would be, to see the screaming Yuna down in the water.

Seeing her do that, immediately made it clear for Athrun, that whatever she was hoping would happen to the purple hair Seiran, it was most likely very mean and painful.

And if it had been anybody else, he would have told her, that she really shouldn't be thinking such things.

But he really didn't do much to hide, that he too was feeling a great deal of dislike, towards the youngest Seiran.

He had even caught himself a few times, wanting to deck the purple hair man, especially when he was flirting with Cagalli directly in front of him, something he had done more then once.

And in all honesty, the only reason he hadn't gone through with it, was because he seriously didn't feel like being throw in jail for assaulting the whining bastard, even true Dearka had offered to help him, if he should need it.

The two of them however, didn't get much time to stay in their own thoughts, when the guy that was steering the Minerva began talking. "Ma'am! We are entering the port now!" He said in a loud tone, not taking his eyes away from what he was doing.

He seriously thought, that the Minerva had more then enough things, that need to be fixed, without him scratching the hall, while they where docking.

Smiling a bit at the Talia nodded a few times in understanding. "Good do make sure that everybody that is not on duty, knows that they can use the time while we are here to get some rest!" The woman said.

Just before she stood up from her seat, and walked over to the ship's two guests, where she looked at them for a few seconds, before she asked them if they where ready to disembark.

And once she saw both of them nod yes to her question.

She turned and looked over at Arthur, where she told him that she would like for him to go with her of the ship, which was more then enough to make him almost fly up from the chair, where he immediately salute her.

"Understood captain, you just lead the way!" He said loudly, while she smiled a bit at him, before she slowly turned around and left the bridge, with the three others following closely behind her.

000000

At the same time outside the ship, Yuna and his father was busy talking about just how fortunate they was, by having such an impressive ship like the Minerva drop in to their laps like this.

"Hmm I really do wonder, if there is anyway we can use this to our advantage, it's not every day that's Zaft's news space ship just comes by like this" Unato said, as he took a glance away from the Minerva and over at his son that was standing beside him.

"No matter what father, I'm sure we can find something the ship can be used for, but lets not discourse this here with so many people around, right now I think we should concentrate on biding Cagalli welcome home!" Yuna said, with a small grin on his face.

Which made his father nod a few times in agreement.

Just as the two of them step over to where, the people that was on board the ship, would most likely exit from.

And while the two of them where doing that a few other people was also busy talking about the Minerva, but this conversation was much more light hearted, then the one the two Seiran's had just been having about the space ship.

"I don't know if it's just me Murdoch, but isn't this ship a little bigger then the one Athrun and Cagalli left in?" Dearka Elsman asked in a joking tone from where he was standing beside the mechanic.

Hearing the boy asked that Murdoch quickly took a small glance over at the boy, before he lifted up both of his arms, now looking like he was trying to measure the entire space ship with his hands.

And after doing that for a few seconds he again looked back at the former Buster pilot. "I think so, but I'm not really sure, maybe all of us is just working to hard!" The man said, using the same kind of tone as the boy.

Which made Dearka laugh a bit. "Hmm if that's the case, then shouldn't we consider asking for a few days of?" The boy asked, with that big grin on his face, as he again looked over at the Minerva, wondering slightly what kind of armament the grey space ship had, and how many mobile suits it could carry, it wasn't every day that he got to see a ship like this.

He did however not get much time to think about, what the ship could do, before Murdoch interrupted his thoughts.

"I do like the idea of getting a few days off, but I think miss Bernes would get angry if the two of us ran away now!" The man said, as he took a small glance over at Murrue, that was already busy rolling her eyes at the two of them.

"Will the two of you please stop joking around, it wouldn't be long now before we have to get to work, and from what I can see there is a lot of things we need to look over on that ship" Murrue said, while looking a few times between them.

Seriously hoping they where done with their joking around, at least for the time being, but if she knew the two of them right, they where far from done with the jokes.

It was just about that time that the door to the ship was opened. And they could now all see Cagalli and Athrun walking slowly out of the ship, follow by two crew members of the ship, that was most likely the people in command.

"Each of them seems to be all right, other then they do look a bit unhappy about something, not really surprising" Murrue said in a small tone, making sure that it was only Dearka and Murdoch that could hear what she had just said.

And both of them nodded in agreement, it didn't take much of a genius to figure out why, both of them where in a bad mood.

And the small frown, that was on both of their faces, did get a little bigger when Yuna stepped forward and began talking in a loud annoying voice, that most people there could hear.

"Cagalli! Cagalli! It's so good to see you back here, all of us was so worried about you!" The purple haired man said, as he tried to put his arm around her.

Seeing him reaching out for her like that, the blond girl quickly stepped back, just badly avoiding getting hugged by the man.

"It's good to see you too Yuna!" She said in a tone that made it clear for everybody that really knew her, that she lying through her teeth right now, that she didn't mean a word of what she had just said.

And one single look at the stance she was in, was enough to tell most people that she ready to jump away from him, should he try and hug her one more time.

But he didn't do that, he just stood there watching her, with a deep frown on his forehead, he really hate it that she couldn't just do what the heck, they told her to do.

If she did that, it would be so much easier to control this country.

But every single time he tried to get close to the blond bitch, she always would find some irritating way to slip by him, and that was just one of those things he seriously despised about her.

He did however have and idea about why she was always avoiding him like the plague.

He really didn't have to look very far, before he found the main reason why, she didn't want to accept him as her fiancée, it was that damn blue haired Coordinator that was standing just a bit behind Cagalli.

"It's good to see you too Alex, as always you did a very fine job protecting my fiancée!" The purple hair man said, glaring a bit hatefully at the young man.

Seeing the angry look the youngest Seiran was giving him, Athrun gave him the same kind of look back. "Why thank you Mr Seiran that's nice to hear, I do after all _love_ looking after Cagalli, it really is a delight" he said, not once showing any signs, that he was going to break down, over the look Yuna was giving him.

It wasn't like this was the first time, a person had looked at him like that.

And even true he knew that Yuna was trying to frightened him, Athrun wasn't scared at all, truth be told he was actually tempted to roll his eyes at the Seiran. But he knew that would be a bad idea, he really didn't want to get in trouble for disrespecting the moron.

"I do however think that Cagalli could use some rest, after our little trip!" Athrun said, as he finally moved his eyes away from the Seiran and over at the girl he loved, where he gave her a small yet caring smile, that she immediately returned.

Noticing how the two of them where looking at each other, the frown on Yuna's forehead got a little bigger, he really hated that damn brat, and he seriously hoped that someday, he would rod in hell.

But after standing there looking at them a bit longer, Yuna took a single stepped forward, taking fully advantage of Cagalli having her attention turned completely towards the blue haired boy.

Once close enough to her he slowly lifted up his hand and placed it on her shoulder, where he gave it a gentle squeeze.

"I understand what you are saying Alex, but there is a few things we need to talk with her about, she can rest up once we are done!" Yuna said, as he began leading Cagalli away from the former Zaft pilot and the Minerva.

But they didn't get very far before Cagalli hurried pulled away from the Yuna, and looked back at Athrun.

"I will see you later Alex!" she called back to him in a very sweet tone, before she walked of in the same direction, the youngest Seiran had been trying to lead her in.

Seeing her go like that, Yuna couldn't help but glare one last time back at Athrun, before he and his father quickly went after the blond girl, none of them looking all that happy, actually each of them looked quite pissed of at the moment.

"Isn't there someway we could get rid of that damn boy?" Yuna asked in a whispered over to his father, that slowly shook his head.

"Not right now Yuna, maybe someday in the future, we could arrange some kind of accident" Unato said, while giving his son a small murderous smile, he too had of course noticed just how close, Lord Uzumi's spoiled little daughter was to the blue hair brat.

But there really wasn't anything they could do about the boy at this moment in time, but truth be told Unato wouldn't really mind, it if something bad was to happen to that kid.

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Looking after Cagalli until she was completely out of his sight, Athrun let out a small breath, as he slowly turned around and walked of in the opposite direction.

Not even noticing that Talia and Arthur looking after him for a few seconds, until the deputy captain turned his eyes over towards the woman beside him, where he saw that she was still looking after the former Zaft pilot.

"It looks like they forget all about us captain!" He said in a loud tone, a bit concerned about what was going to happen now.

He still didn't think it was the best idea, to let Orb fix up the Minerva, in his eyes a task like that was better left to some of Zaft's own mechanics, not a bunch of complete strangers.

And even true he had already mentioned that to the captain a few times, she had just told him that everything would be all right, and that he should not worry about it so much.

Hearing her second in commands words, Talia finally looked away from the direction Athrun had disappeared in, and back over at the man beside her.

"Yeah I guess all of them where to busy to give us much thought" she said while taking a look around the harbor, where she quickly noticed a woman about her own age and two men coming directly towards them.

Once they where standing in front of them, the brown hair woman smiled a bit, as she slowly lifted her hand for Talia to shake.

"Hello and welcome to Orb! My name if Maria Bernes, and I been put in charge of the repairs, and everything else that needs to be done on your ship" Murrue said in a kind tone.

Just as Talia reached out and took the other woman's hand, shaking it a few times.

"It's nice to meet you, I'm Talia Gladys and I'm the captain of the Minerva, and this is my second in command......!" That was all she got out, when she suddenly noticed, just where Arthur was looking at the other woman.

Feeling a small frown ran over her forehead, Talia wonder a few short seconds why the heck all men had to be like that.

And not wanting to insult the woman, that was going to help them out so much, Talia quickly reached up with her other hand and grabbed on to Arthur's arm, where she immediately gave it a very hard squeeze, that obviously hurt quite a bit.

Which he showed by trying to pull his arm away and by biting his low lips in an attempt not to yell out in pain, happy that he wasn't looking at the woman's breasts any longer.

Talia slowly eased up on the grib and let his arm drop, still promising herself that once they got back on board the Minerva, she was going to have a nice little chat with him about this.

She really didn't want her ships honour getting ruined, because her deputy captain couldn't keep his eyes to himself.

And after being completely sure, that he wouldn't just began looking at the other woman like that again. Talia slowly turned both of her eyes over towards both of the men that was standing right behind Maria.

"And who are these two gentleman?" She asked, while taking a glance back at the other female there, waiting to hear what part the two men, was going to have in putting her ship back together.

Hearing the captain's question Murrue turned and took a look back at the two people behind her.

"Ohh sorry about that, I forget to introduce them, the right one is Kojiro Murdoch, he is one of our very best mechanic, and I have no doubt that it wouldn't take him much time to fix up your ship" Murrue said, while thinking back to how much Murdoch had done in the last war, both with repairing the Archangel's mobile suits and the ship itself.

She did however not think about that for long before she turned and looked over at Dearka. "And this is Dearka Haw, he is quite good at working both with mobile suits and other things!" Murrue explained, making extra sure to use the fake last name the former Zaft piloted, had asked her to use, just as the Minerva was entering the harbor.

And even true both she and Murdoch, had been a bit surprised by his request to be called by Miriallia's last name.

He had just smiled a bit at them and told them that it made most sense to him, and that he really didn't want the ships crew to know who he really was, he was after all branded as a traitor in the last war.

And even true he wasn't ashamed about what he did back then, he just didn't want an entire Zaft ship, to be whispering about him behind his back, while he was busy helping them out.

Truly happy to know that her ship was in capable hands, Talia nodded a single time with a thoughtful expression, as she turned around and took a look back at the Minerva.

"So how much time do you think it would take, before she is fully repaired again miss Maria?" She asked, not once taking her eyes away from the space ship, that made it clear for all that was watching her, that she was a bit concerned about how much time this would take.

She did however not get a reply from Maria, which made her wonder a bit if she had heard the question.

But just as she was about to ask about it one more time.

That Murdoch fellow stepped over beside her, where he slowly let his eyes ran over the ship, obviously trying to draw a picture of everything that need to be looked over on the ship.

And finally after a few long minutes, he looked over at the captain of the vessel.

"It's kinda hard to tell, the ship really does seems to have gone through some very tough times, it's actually quite impressive that there isn't anything else that needs a little work!" Murdoch said, clearly still trying to come up with an reply to her question, as he walked all the way over to the ship, to take a close look at some of the damages on it's hulls.

Once there he didn't say anything, he just stood for a few very long minutes in his own thoughts, but finally he slowly turned his attention away from the ship and back at Talia.

"Most likely about a week or so, all those damages you guys took from flying through the atmosphere, has really given her quite the beating, and it will certainly take

sometime to straighten everything out again, but after that she should be as good as new!" The man promised in a loud tone, and with a big grin on his face.

Which made it clear for both Murrue and Dearka, that he was already looking forward, to get to work on the grey space ship.

Hearing the man tell her all of that Talia nodded slowly in understanding, as she thought about how the Minerva used to look, in her eyes it would surely take a very long time to get the ship back to it's original state.

And this man had just promised her, that they would be done in about a week, which made her wonder slightly if the man was exaggerate a bit.

But that was when Talia noticed the exciting look on his face. It was obvious that he was just about to run of at any minute now, to get whatever tools he would need to repair the ship.

Seeing that, she couldn't help but smile a bit, it was always nice to meet people, that was actually happy about getting to work.

"Well truth be told, I really don't think you can fix her up in just a week, but I guess you just have to prove me wrong" Talia said, once again looking back at the Minerva.

Hearing those words leave the woman's mouth, Murdoch got an even large grin on his face, he seriously did like a nice little challenge.

And with that in mind, he quickly turned around and walk over to Dearka.

Where he immediately grabbed on to the boy's collar, pulling him along as he was walking over, to everything they where going to need in this little project, telling the boy that now they finally gotten something fun to do.

"You call this fun?! I really don't think anybody else, would find it fun, not to getting any sleep for an entire week!" Dearka grumbled loudly, truly not happy that the captain of the Minerva, just had to get Murdoch this excited over working on her ship.

And just thinking about it Dearka knew without a doubt, that he would be working over time the next few days, something he really didn't like, mostly because it cut the time he was going to spend with Miriallia down.

Seeing them leave like that and hearing the boy's loud complaining, Talia turned and looked back at Maria.

"Hmm maybe I shouldn't have dared him like that, the boy doesn't really sound all that happy about it" the captain said, taking one more look back after the two mechanics, that was already busy collecting, just about every single thing they would need to fix up the Minerva's hull.

But it didn't take long before Murrue put her concerns to rest.

"You don't have to worry about him, he just doesn't like to work to much, but he will get the job done especially when he remembers, that his girlfriend have to work the next few days, and wouldn't be home for sometime!" Murrue explained in a very loud tone, that she knew for certain that the former Buster pilot could hear, from where he was standing now.

But the only thing that made it clear that he heard everything she had just said, was because he immediately stopped his yelling and complaining, and began getting the rest of the tools, not saying anything else.

But it was still clear for the two women, that he still wasn't looking forward to work on the Minerva for such a long time, and even as Arthur said something about that.

Murrue just smiled a bit at him, and told him that she was certain that the boy would be all right, it wasn't like Murdoch could do all of this work in just one go.

And even if Dearka was forced to work a bit longer then usual, it wasn't really something that would hurt the boy, she was actually quite sure that someday in the future, Dearka would be able to get some rest again.

After that the brown hair woman slowly turned and walked of, telling the two leaders of the grey space ship that she too need to get to work, and that she couldn't just stand around talking the whole day.

"I will see the two of you later!" She call back to them, just before she disappeared in to a room that was located at the end of the harbor.

Leaving Talia and Arthur all by them self, so now they just stood there for a few very long minutes, thinking about everything they had just witness.

But finally Arthur turned, and looked over at Talia. "They seemed quite trustworthy, I do think we will be find, when it's those guys that is looking after the Minerva" Arthur said in a somewhat thoughtful tone.

That made the captain of the grey space ship nod slowly in agreement, as she stood there trying to figure out what else, that need to be looked over on the ship.

But as for now, she was happy to know, that the messed up hull would be fixed.

The way they looked right now, wasn't really all that great, so it truly would be nice when the ship was back to it's usual state, she did however not get long to think about that.

Before she heard the boy from before, yelling something that sound very much like they didn't need that dumb thing now, it couldn't be used for anything before they where done with the hull.

But the man just told him, that they didn't have to get it later then.

Which of course made the boy say something back, about it being impossible to repair the entire hull, in just one day.

And even true Talia expected the man to agree with the boy on that.

He just yelled out something about they would take that tool with them no matter what, and that this was the end of the discussion, it was then she saw them coming directly towards her, each of them with a smile on their faces.

It was obvious that both of them where actually having fun, picking on each other like this.

Seeing that, Talia turned her attention away from them, and over at Arthur that was standing just beside her, hoping that he was ready to get back on board the ship, there was after all a few minor things she needed to discourse with him.

Especially about the way he had been gawking at that Maria person.

But he didn't even noticed that she was looking at him, he was far to busy watching the two mechanics, that was now arguing loudly about where exactly on the Minerva they should start with the repairs.

And even true they actually where quite fun to listen to.

Talia didn't really have all that much patience, with her second in command right now, which meant that she didn't want to stand around out there, until he was done watching those two joke around.

So after waiting a few short seconds, in the hope that he would notice that she wanted to talk with him, Talia slowly lifted her hand and clear her throat loudly.

Which finally got Arthur to look over at her. "Well now that we meet the people that is in charge of repairing the ship. I think we should get back on board again, there is few things that needs to be done on the inside of the ship. And I would feel much more at ease, if we leave that to some of our own mechanics, but I would like for Yolant, Vino and a few others to give a helping hand out here!" She said. just before she turned around on one foot and began walking towards the entrance to the ship, with Arthur following closely behind her.

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Meanwhile not that far away from where the Minerva was located.

Athrun Zala was sitting in his car looking up at the sky, thinking hard about what he was suppose to do now, he did consider going home.

But he knew that there was nobody there at the moment other then Myrna and a few others of the house staff.

And he really didn't feel like talking with any of them right now, seeing as he was still in a bad mood, both over what that terrorist had said about his father, and the way Yuna kept flirting with Cagalli.

But on the other hand he couldn't really spend the rest of his life out there.

He had already been there a half hour now, and he could see some of guards over by the door, looking at him from time to time, clearly wondering what he was doing.

So after sitting there for a few more minutes, he decided to go visit Kira and Lacus, as far as he knew both of them should be home by now, and he could seriously use a little time, together with some of the people he truly cared about.

So with that decision made, he reached out and loudly started the car, then drove of in a fast speed, that would surely have given him a ticket if he was caught.

But he really didn't care all that much about that right now, he want to see his two friends as quickly as possible, and maybe have a good long talk with them, both of them, really did have the ability, to make most people feel better when they where down.

It took him about twenty minutes before he got out of the city, and was now heading even fast to where he knew the married couple lived together, with a few other crew members, from the Archangel and the Eternal.

But he seriously doubt that anybody else would be there. He did after all see both Dearka and miss Murrue, back when the Minerva had enter the port, so it would be sometime, before they got back to the house.

And he really didn't think Miriallia would be there, she was after all a journalist and with all the things that had happened with Junius Seven, she was properly already out, taking pictures of all the destruction, the minor pieces of the colony had caused.

So it would most likely take sometime, before he would see her again, which meant that the only once there right now, was Kira, Lacus and Mayu if she wasn't still at school or over playing with the other children at reverend Malchio's place.

There was a small part of him, that was seriously hoping she was out. It was somewhat depressing the things he want to talk about, and he really didn't wanted her to hear any of it.

She had already suffered more then enough in the last war, both with losing her entire family, and not being able to remember even a single thing about them.

Seeing as she had amnesia, when she woke up after La Flaga had rescued her, so they never did find out where exactly she came from, and even true they had done all they could to help her out, she still hadn't been able to recover her memories.

But not everything was totally bad.

She had only been staying at that house for a few months, before miss Murrue had decided to adopted the girl, which of course meant that now her last name was Ramius, something she was very quick to adopt to.

And it was also about those times, she had began calling him big brother Athrun, something that had taken a little while to get use to.

He had however not been driving for long, before he saw the person that was on his mind, walking by the side of the road, with a red school bag thrown over her left shoulder.

And even true he really didn't want her there, when he was talking with Kira and Lacus. It wasn't really nice to just zoom past her, like he didn't see her.

So once he was close enough to her, he slowly brought his black can to a hold and called out to her.

"Hey Mayu! Are you on your way home?!" He asked in a loud tone, while wondering slightly why she was walking all the way back home. Normally when she had to get home from school, miss Murrue or Andrew Waltfeld would pick her up.

And if they didn't have the time for that, she would usually take the bus, so in his eyes it was really, really strange finding her walking around out here on her own.

Hearing that familiar voice right behind her.

Mayu immediately turned around and looked back at the person, that had just spoken to her, and once she saw who she thought it was, a big smile came over her lips, as she quickly walked over to the car.

"Hey Athrun, it's good to see you back down here, where is big sis Cagalli?" She asked, truly hoping that it wouldn't be long before she had a chance to talk with the blond girl.

"She had an important meeting to attend to" Athrun explained, thinking a bit about what she, and the rest of the Orb politicians, was discoursing at this very moment.

But he did however not get much time to really think about it.

Before Mayu once again began speaking to him, this time asking if Cagalli would show up later. But she didn't really get a reply from him, he just sat there with a far away look on his face, that made it quite clear for the girl, that he wasn't really listening to her.

Which immediately made a small vein ran over her forehead. "Hey wake up Athrun, you can sleep once you get OLD!" The brown hair girl yelled out, in such a loud, that it properly could be heard a few for miles away.

Not that Mayu cared much about that, she just want Athrun to pay attention to her, when she was talking to him.

And once she was sure, that he wouldn't disappear in to his own thoughts again, she repeated the question one more time, while looking straight in to her second big brother figure's green eyes, this time truly hoping, that he would tell her, just what she want to hear.

But much to her big disappointment, he just told her that he didn't know if Cagalli had any time, for something like that in the near future.

But when he saw how unhappy his answer made her, he quickly decided to chance the subject to something else.

"So what in the world are you strolling around out here for Mayu? I thought you always took the bus when you need to get home" Athrun asked, now with a slightly curious expression on his face.

Seeing that and hearing the question Mayu got a somewhat angry frown on her forehead, just before she gave him a reply. "Yeah I usually do that, but apparently the bus driver's house was destroyed by a few pieces of Junius Seven, so there wasn't anybody there to drive the damn thing. And I really didn't feel like waiting around there for a next few hours, until they found a replacement driver" the girl said thinking about how much trouble, she had been through ever since she had first stepped out of the school building.

Which was more then enough to make her a bit angry, she seriously didn't care all that much about going there in the first place, she just found the whole thing so amazingly tiresome and boring.

And it didn't really help, that she had spend almost two whole hours getting home, there where just so many more exciting things, she could have used that time on.

She did however not sulk like that for long, before she again began talking to Athrun.

"I did try and calling home a few times, to ask somebody to come and get me. But there wasn't anybody there that answered the phone, so I decided that I might as well walk home, instead of wasting any more time!" The girl said loudly.

As Athrun nodded a few times in understanding, and asked her if she want a lifted back to her house, seeing as he was going there anyway.

And just hearing him ask that immediately made a big smile ran over Mayu's lips, as she quickly throw her red school bag, down on the back seat of the car, then got in right beside Athrun, where she hurried leaned back, and rest her head on the black leather seat.

But even as she sat there, with her eyes closed she still wasn't done talking with the person beside her.

"It really was great that you showed up when you did Athrun, my feet is just killing me after walking around so much, I seriously think I'm going to stay home from school tomorrow!" The girl said in a very tired voice, just as Athrun reached out and started the car again.

Which meant that it didn't take much time, before the two of them where once again heading hastly for their destination, both of them seriously hoping that it wouldn't take to long to get there.

They did however only had to take one brief look around, to realize that traffic wasn't really going to be a big problem right now, seeing as Athrun's black sports car was the only one on the road at the moment.

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At the same time near Athrun and Mayu's location, a brown hair boy and a pink hair girl, was slowly walking hand in hand back towards their house, both of them where pretty quiet.

Seeing as they each had a lot on their minds right now, it was only when a certain green robot bird, land on the boy's shoulder that Lacus finally ended the deep silence.

"This really was a nice little walk Kira, maybe next we should go for a swim, it is after all quite hot out here, and you still haven't seen me in that green new swimsuit I bought a couple of days ago" Lacus said, a bit disappointed, that she hadn't really been able to show Kira, that nice little suit yet.

They had been talked about, going out for a midnight dip last night.

But the whole Junius Seven incident had really put a damper on that idea. Seeing as they had been force to take shelter instead, to not get hit by any of the debris from the colony.

Not that the two of them had given it much thought back then, they had been more worried about what was going on outside of their little shelter, luckily as far as both of them knew, all of the people in their lives was all right.

Even true Lacus had been a little concerned this morning, when Miriallia had told them all, that her job required that she had to leave for some time, to cover up the story, about some of the things that had happened down here.

And even true Lacus already knew that Miriallia was just doing her job, she just couldn't help but feel a tiny bit uneasy, seeing one of her best friends leave for such long period of time, just a few hours after the earth was saved from properly the biggest disaster that would ever occur.

And truth be told, she wasn't the only one, who was worried about her friend's safety.

Lacus had already talked more then a few times, with Miriallia's mother today. Who had told her just how much her daughter's work concerned her at the moment, and how much she wished her little girl, would find something else to do.

But even as all of those thoughts where running through Lacus' mind, the person that was walking just next to her, began talking in a somewhat calm tone.

"If you really want to go swimming that badly we can do it tonight, when everybody else is asleep" Kira suggest, while thinking about how Lacus would look, in that swimsuit she was talking about.

For some reason, she seemed very determined, that it should just be the two of them, and that it should be in the middle of the night.

Not that Kira had the slightest against spending some alone time with her, but it really made him curious about, what her new swimsuit looked like.

Truly happy to hear him say those words. Lacus looked over at him with a big smile on her face, she slowly dropped his hand, and grabbed on to his arm instead, holding it tightly, as the two of them continued heading slowly back towards the big house, they could see in the distance.

"That sounds great Kira, I look forward to it then!" She said in a cheerful voice, while thinking about how nice it would be, with just the two of them playing around in the water together, without anybody around to disturb them.

Seeing as most of the residents of the big house, was either at work or of some place else, which neither of them knew where was, and even true both of them where quite concerned about what was going on, all over the world right now.

They just couldn't help but enjoy, the peacefulness that had been there, since the two of them got out of their bed this morning.

The whole house had pretty much been deserted.

And that had truly been a very nice chance, normally when they got out of bed, there was always a lot of noise around the house, which wasn't really strange with five other people living there too.

Luckily they never got woken up by any of the loud noise, the other residents of the house made, seeing as their entire room had been made completely soundproof for obvious reasons.

And they had both heard, miss Murrue and Mr Waltfeld discoursing doing the same thing, to the room of the other happy couple, of the household.

Apparently keeping things nice and quiet at night, wasn't really something Dearka and Miriallia liked doing either.

Unfortunately the peace was soon brought to a hold, when they suddenly heard a car approaching the place with great speed.

And they only had to turn away from the ocean view, to see Athrun's black car pulling up beside their house. And even from this distance both of them, could clearly see both Athrun and Mayu stepping out of the car.

And it didn't even take a minute, before Mayu noticed them standing down on the beach.

"HEY YOU TWO!" She yelled out in a loud tone.

Which actually scared away some of the birds, that was sitting in the few trees near the house. Not that she gave that much of her attention, she was already rushing with full speed towards them, not bothering to wait even a second for Athrun to follow her.

Which meant that it did not take her long, before she was standing directly in front of them, with a deep frown on her forehead.

"Where in God's name have the two of you been!? Why didn't you answer the phone when I called before!?" She asked, sounding very much like, she was actually ready to interrogate them for answers.

But that didn't really scared the married couple all that much, and neither did the angry glare she was sending both of them.

It wasn't like this was the first time in those two years, they had been living together with the brown hair girl, that she was mad at them for something. And each of them pretty much knew, that it wouldn't be long, before she was in a good mood again.

And if she didn't cheer up after complaining loudly for a few minutes, there was a few tricks that would surely help, like playing video games with her for a few hours, or see some kind of horror movie.

Not that Kira and Lacus liked that very much, it was just so far away from what they would usually see. Both of them truly did preferred something that wasn't nearly as spooky as the movies Mayu liked to watch.

The only one who actually liked seeing those scary movies along with her, was Dearka, and he wasn't there right now, so they just had to settle this with a few video games.

Unfortunately for the two of them, they really didn't get all that much time to figure out, how they where suppose to cheer the angry brown hair girl up again, before she took a very deep breath, and yelled out yet another thing she want answers to.

"Tell me, what in the world the two of you been doing all of this time?!" She said, while glaring a few times between them, making sure that they knew that they better give her some kind of reply, before she really start getting mad.

But that was when Lacus took a single step away from Kira, and moved over in front of the hot-tempered girl, where she stood a few seconds looking straight in to Mayu's two angry eyes, then she slowly moved in and pulled the smaller girl in a gentle hug.

"I'm very sorry that we didn't answer the phone when you called us, and I'm sure Kira is sorry too, but we where out taking a nice little walk on beach, so we forget our mobile phones back at the house" Lacus explained in a soft tone.

Just before she backed away from the girl, she had been seeing as her little sister for almost two years now. Where she again looked in to her eyes, that surely didn't held as much anger in them, as before.

"Ok but you better do something very nice to make it up to me, if it wasn't because Athrun show up when he did, I would still be out there walking by the road all by myself!" The girl said, clearly still a bit angry at the two of them.

Hearing her say that, Kira stepped over beside her and smiled a bit.

"Then why don't we go inside, Lacus did bake a nice chocolate cake today, can't a piece of that not help a bit on your mood!" The boy said, hoping that this little offer, would be enough to get the girl to stop glaring at Lacus and him,

Unfortunately he didn't really have much luck with that, as she slowly turned her eyes away from his wife and over at him, where she continued looking at him for a very long time, still with a deep angry vein on her forehead.

But finally after a few minutes, she opened her mouth again. "Ok you got a deal big brother Kira, but I want the biggest piece!" She told them in a loud tone, already thinking about just how delicious and tasty Lacus' cake was.

And that thought alone, was more then enough to make the smaller girl lick her lips a single time. It didn't matter much how many times Lacus baked, it would always tasted so incredibly good.

Which was actually something, Mayu was a tiny bit jealous of.

Every time she tried to make a cake, it would always end in a minor disaster, and with the entire kitchen looking like something from a nightmare, while her cake would taste either of salt or something else completely uneatable.

There was even a time, where it had end up tasting like soap, seeing as she somehow succeed in putting haft of the washing-up liquid down in to the pastry.

Needless to say both Dearka and Mr Waltfeld had been feeling pretty bad for the rest of the day, and had been using a lot of time trying to get rid of the soap taste, by washing out their mouths more then a few times.

While the rest of the household, had actually found the whole thing quite entertain, especially Miriallia had been having the time of her life, teasing her boyfriend after his little taste of Mayu's cake.

It was just about that time, Athrun got over next to them. "Well that really does sounds great, truth be told I could really use a piece of cake myself, I haven't gotten anything to eat the entire today, with everything that has been going on" the blue hair boy said, just as his stomach made a big growling sound, that made it obvious just how hungry he really was.

Hearing that, both the married couple and Mayu couldn't help but let out a few light chuckles, it was very, very unusual for Athrun to show up there hungry.

Seeing as he seriously didn't like imposing too much on other people, even those he knew that cared about him.

Which had actually resolute in that both the former captain of the Archangel, and the coffee addicted former Zaft commander, had told him more then a few times, that they had nothing against feeding him, when he came all the way out there visiting them.

"Well if the two of you are that eager after getting a piece of my chocolate cake, why don't we all hurry and get back to the house, it's actually begin to get a bit chilly out here" Lacus said, while shaking just a little bit, because of the cold wind, that was now blowing softly over the beach.

It wasn't like she was freezing a whole lot, but she would still like to get inside, and warm up.

But even as she was thinking about that, she couldn't help feel a slightly bit disappointed, that the wind was getting strong and strong, the more time they spend there.

If she was already cold now, while the sun was still up high, it was very doubtful that she and Kira could go out swimming tonight, without being afraid to catch a cold.

And even true the idea, had sounded very interesting in both of their ears, they truly didn't want to end up getting sick over it.

She did however not get the time to come up with something else they could do, before Kira moved over next her and where he gently placed his right arm around her waist, then slowly leaned in and whispered something to her in a soft tone.

"We can always find something else to do tonight Lacus" he said, trying to cheer her up a bit, after that he quickly gave her left cheek a small light peck, before he once again backed away, still holding on to her waist.

It was just about that time he noticed, that both Athrun and Mayu was just standing there watching, apparently waiting for Lacus and him, to finish up down there.

And when the brown hair girl saw that they where done with their little chat, she began talking in a very demanding tone, that she most likely had picked up from Cagalli at some point in time.

"Ok now that the two of you are done looking so cute, can we get going? There is a chocolate cake in that house with my name on it!" The girl said in a loud tone.

Just as she ran of full speed towards the house, with the three teens following far behind her, all of them wondering slightly if she could really eat the whole thing, before they could even reach the house.

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It was about an hour later inside, Lacus and Mayu was now busy playing video games against each other, while the two boys was watching them, it was quite clear that both of the girls, want to win the fighting game they where playing right now.

But it quickly became obvious, who of the girls was going to win the battle, that was going on between the two characters on the tv screen.

Mayu did after all have much more experience in playing this game then Lacus had.

But that didn't mean the pink hair girl was giving up without fighting back. She was actually handling herself very well in the game, seeing as she from time to time played it against Kira and some of the other people in the household.

But there was no doubt, that Mayu was the house champion in this game, with Miriallia following closely behind her.

But as the two girls continued playing the game, Kira couldn't help but notice the far away expression on Athrun's his face, and when he saw him narrow his eyes just a bit, Kira knew that whatever he was thinking about it had to be very serious.

So after observing him a bit longer, he reached out and place his hand on his best friend's shoulder, immediately getting all of Athrun's attention over on him.

"I could really use a little air, do you want to come too?" Kira asked, while he slowly stood up from the couch and began walking towards the balcony door, that was located at the end of the living room.

And it didn't take long before, he got the door opened and disappeared outside.

Seeing that the blue hair man let out a deep sigh, before he too got back up on his feet and slowly followed Kira out of the door.

Once out there, both of them stood there for a few minutes, looking at the descending sun that was now slowly disappearing in the distance. It did however not take all that much time, before Kira turned and looked over at his friend.

"What's wrong Athrun, it's been a long time since I have last seen you look so depressed?" The brown haired boy asked, as he again looked out towards the setting sun.

Hearing Kira asked that, Athrun took a small glance away from the view, and looked over at the person beside him. "I don't know Kira, the whole thing with Junius Seven really bothers me a lot, the whole thing just seemed so unreal, like something taken directly from your worst nightmare. I still have a tough time, believing that those guys was truly serious, about dropping the colony on earth" he said in a quiet tone, just as the words from the last terrorists ran through his head one more time.

Which was more then enough to make him tighten the grip he already had on the railing.

He truly didn't understand why something like this had to happened, now that both the Naturals and Coordinators, had finally started living together with each other in peace, why did those bastard have to disrupted that.

"Damn those guys, why the heck did they have to do something like that?" He quietly asked himself, as he tried his best to come up with an answer to his own question.

But even true Athrun hadn't meant for Kira to hear those words he still did. "What actually happened up there Athrun? I know that you where fighting them, but there is something about all of this, that you are not telling!" Kira said, while narrowing both of his eyes a bit, as he stood there looking at his best friend, with an expression that made it clear, that he want to know everything that happened, while Junius Seven was heading towards earth.

Seeing the look on Kira's face, the blue hair teen let out a small breath, as he looked up at the sky, thinking about how it hadn't been that long since, he had actually been fighting for his life up there.

But after just standing there for a few minutes, he again looked over at Kira, where he immediately began telling him everything that had happened, even what the terrorist had said to him, while they where fighting each other.

And while it might be a long story, it didn't really take much time, for Athrun to tell Kira everything.

"I see, that will explain why you look so sad, but you do know that your father had really nothing to do with what happened up there, it wasn't like he order those guys to move the colony Athrun" Kira said, obviously trying to cheer his friend up.

Hearing those words, Athrun slowly turned and once again looked back at best friend, where he couldn't help but smile a bit, over Kira's attempt to get him in a better mood.

But it truly didn't chance all that much, no matter what, those guys had still been people that had supported his father's ideas, of killing every last person down here.

Even those who had nothing to do with what happened to Junius Seven in the first place, and even true Athrun had truly been crush over losing his mother like that.

He did not want to his father to make innocent people experience that kind of pain, that had actually been one of the many reason why, he had chosen to fight against him, in the last war.

He did however not think about that for long, before he again looked out at the evening sun, that by now had almost disappeared completely, in the horizon.

"I know that it's not his fault Kira, but those guys really did believe that they where doing the right thing no matter how terrible it really was, and even true the disaster was prevent, there are still going to be some kind of consistency after all of this, and it kinda makes me want to do something before anything else can happen!" The blue hair man said, as he again looked over at Kira.

"So what exactly are you planing to do Athrun?" Kira asked, sounding just a bit curious, as he stood there watching his best friend, that by now was obviously quite far away, in his own thoughts.

But finally after a few long minutes, he seemed to make up his mind about something, as he took yet again another glance out over the horizon.

"I have actually been thinking about that, ever since me and Cagalli got home. And I have decided that I'm going back to the Plants, to have a talk with Chairman Durandal. He seems to be a very wise and reasonable man, and I'm certain that he might be able, to find away to make sure that this situation, doesn't get any further out of hand!" Athrun said, while thinking about what he knew, about the new Chairman of the Plants.

Hearing that, Kira nodded a few times in understanding, as the two of them stood there for a very long time, just looking out at the view, each of them obviously far away in their own thoughts, about everything they had just discoursed.

But neither of them really got all that much time to think, before they heard voices from inside the house, which made it clear, that miss Murrue, Dearka and Mr Waltfeld where all back home.

"Hm I better get out of here, and back home, before Cagalli starts getting worried about me" Athrun said, in a quiet tone, as the two friends turned around, and once again enter the house.

None of them knowing that this conversation, was going to be the last one, they would have for a very, very long time.

To be continued.

Some of you guys might be wondering why Lacus and Kira ain't living with reverend Malchio like they did in the original series. But I just don't like the idea of two hormone fill married teenagers living in a house full of children.

I'm sure you guys can understand that!


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

It was about a day after the Minerva had arrived in Orb.

And while most of the crew was enjoying having some time to slack of for a bit.

Somebody on the ship, was not nearly as delighted with the situation as the rest of the crew members was.

Actually he had badly left his room, since the grey space ship gotten there, the only times he stepped outside from the chamber, was when he need to eat, or had to go to the bathroom.

But right now he was just laying on his bed looking up at a pink mobile phone, while thinking about that certain person it had once belong to.

He truly missed her a lot at the moment, and he deeply wish that he could see and talk with her again, at least just one more time.

But the boy already knew, that a wish like that would never come true, his little sister was after all dead, and there was nothing in this whole world that could bring her back.

"Damn it, why did we have to go here of all places, I would much rather have taken a small trip to hell, than set foot in this damn country ever again!" He muttered to himself in a angry tone.

Just as his thoughts slowly drifted away from his sister and over at a person, he didn't have nearly as much love for, truth be told he hate her with a passion.

And he frankly wished, that he would never ran in to that stupid blond girl ever again, she and her entire family was, after all the once, that had cost him to lose his little sister in the first place.

Why the hell did Orb had to stay neutral in the first place, why the heck couldn't they just have joined up with somebody, if they had done that both his parents and his sister would still be alive today.

But even as his thoughts continued staying on that subject, he slowly sat up on the bed, and pressed down on one of the buttons on the phone, making it so that he could hear the soft sweet voice of the previous owner, of the pink little device.

"Damn Mayu, why the heck did I have to meet, one of those who actually killed you?" He asked, with a great deal of hatred in his voice, he did however not get any kind of reply, seeing as he was the only one in the room.

Which meant that the only thing he could do was try and come up with a reply on his own.

And ever true he would honestly, have liked very much to find some kind of answer to his question, he just couldn't think of one.

So after sitting there for a few more minutes, he finally stood up from the bed and began walking towards the door, determined to at least take a small look around Orb, as long as the Minerva was stuck there.

And it wasn't long after that, before he was walking slowly down the ships halls heading straight towards the exit.

He did however not get very far, before he saw the two Hawke sisters and Nicol standing by the mess hall talking with each other about something. But he seriously didn't feel like getting in to a conversation with any of them right now, so he just walked right past them like they where not even there.

Unfortunately much to his slight irritation, he wasn't allowed to get very far, before the oldest of the two girls called out after him.

"Well good morning to you too Shinn, did you sleep well?" The red hair ZAKU pilot asked, making him turn around and look back at her, where after a few very long tense seconds, where both Meyrin and Nicol thought he was going to say something rude back.

But what actually surprised the two of them a bit, was that instead of saying anything that would have gotten him on thin ice with Lunamaria, after just making up with her, he just nodded slowly a few times, while smiling a bit her.

"Yes I slept fine Luna thank you for asking, but if it's all right with you I'm not really in the mood to talk right now, so if you can wait till after I get back from my walk then we can talk for as long as you want" he promised.

Just as he turned around, and once more began walking down the halls, not even bothering to wait long enough, for Lunamaria to come up with some kind of reply, to everything he had just said to her.

And it didn't take all that much time, before he was completely out of side.

Seeing that, Meyrin slowly turned, and looked back at Nicol and her sister.

"I do wonder a bit where he is going, he really did seemed to have a lot on his mind, I don't think I ever seen Shinn look that thoughtful before" the youngish of the two red haired girls said.

Truly feeling a bit worried about him, even true she had never been as close to Shinn as her big sister was.

But maybe that was because, the two of them where both mobile suit pilots, which meant that they properly had to rely on each other a lot, while they where out in battle.

Maybe that was the reason why, she had never been able to form as strong a bond with the Impulse pilot as her sister had, there was just so many things, that she honestly didn't understand about Shinn.

But as those thoughts was going through her head, she didn't noticed Nicol take a single step over towards her.

It was first when she felt a hand being placed on her shoulder, that she finally turned her attention away, from the direction Shinn had disappeared and back at her green hair friend.

"I don't think you have to worry to much about him Meyrin, I'm sure he will be all right after he gets a little time to on his own to think, he did after all lose a lot here, not that long ago!" Nicol said in a quiet tone, while smiling sadly at the red hair girl.

That didn't say a single thing back, she just nodded slowly a few times in understanding, as she looked over at her sister that looked just as thoughtful, as she herself was.

But when Nicol told them there was nothing they could do for Shinn, at the moment, and even if they could do something, it was highly unlikely that he was going to accept their help.

Seeing as the only person he would ever talk to about personal problems was Rey.

So instead of standing around out there, not doing anything, they could just as well get some breakfast, before they had to get to work, and with that decision made, the three teenagers slowly turned around and enter the mess hall, without saying anything else.

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Meanwhile Shinn was quickly stepping out of the giant Morgenroete facilities where the Minerva, was supposed to be until it was completely repaired again, not that he cared much about that, at the moment.

The only thing he want right now, was to find someplace, where he didn't have to think about Mayu and his past.

And if the city was still as it used to be, when he was living there, he knew that there was a game arcade a few miles away.

There he was sure he could find something to do to past the time, and get his mind over on something else.

Like defeating whatever game was there, something he was truly confident he could do without too much trouble, he was after all the pilot of the Impulse gundam and flying that mobile suit, was certainly a much harder task then beating a few old video games.

Luckily it didn't take him much time, to get there, where he was happy to see that even after two years the arcade was still there.

So after just looking at it for a few minutes, he slowly walked over to the building where he immediately reached out and opened the door.

Once inside, he stopped and just stood there for a bit taking a small looked around, where he quickly noticed, that the place had change a lot, since the last time he had been here.

He did however not look around for long, before he began walking deeper in to the arcade, trying to decided which game he should play first.

And it didn't take him many minutes, before he found something that looked somewhat interesting. So after looking at it a bit longer, he turned and went over to the man, that could give him just the right kind of chance for the machine.

Once that was over with, it didn't take long before he was back by the machine, where he immediately throw in a few coins, which of course got the machine to start up.

And it didn't take more then a few seconds, before he was shooting and fighting whatever strange alien creature, that would appear up on the screen, and even true this was the very first time he tried this game.

He really didn't have all that many problems getting far in the game, whatever creature that attacking him was much easier to beat, then most of the mobile suits he at some point in time had been facing in the past.

Especially the three stolen gundams, was a much more serious and deadly challenge then this lousy game. But even after realizing that, the boy did not stop playing, it wasn't like he had anything else to do, right now.

And before he knew it, a few hours had gone by, and he was now fighting against the last boss of the game.

Which was actually that much harder to beat, then any of the other creatures he had been fighting in the game.

That however did not stop him from blowing a few very nice holes, straight through the stomach area of the ugly thing on the screen, which made the monster scream loudly, as it slammed it's claw out after him.

But he just made his own character duck under the thing, while shooting of his most powerful weapon directly in to the face of the creature. Which made it fall to the floor, finally dead after the truly pitiful fight it had just put him through, seeing that Shinn slowly raised one of his eyebrows.

"What a pathetic game, I seriously didn't think it was going to be that easy to beat!" He grumble in a unhappy tone, while fighting back those feelings that told him to give the worthless game machine a hard kick.

Yet once he got some control over his emotions, he turned around and began walking towards the exit of the arcade, not even bothering to take the time and write in his name on the screen.

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Once back outside Shinn didn't really do much he just stood there quietly for almost ten minutes, thinking about where he should go next.

He really didn't want to go back to the Minerva already, seeing as he seriously didn't feel like just sitting in his room right now, just waiting for the grey space ship to be repaired, that frankly would get boring very quickly.

But as he stood there trying to figure out where he should go.

His stomach suddenly made a loud growling sound, which reminded him, that he hadn't even gotten a crumb to eat all day, and that he was in fact quite hungry and thirsty.

"Better find a place to eat" he mutter, while looking around for a place that wouldn't have to many people, he still didn't quite feel like having company at the moment.

He did however not have to search for long, before he saw a small ramen shop over on the other side of the street, and without giving it a second thought he began making his way over there.

"Hmm does look like a nice little place" he quietly said to himself, not caring one bit, that there was actually a few people his own age, looking at him right now.

He just reached out and opened the door, and entered the small shop, without giving any of the teenagers out there, any kind of attention.

Once inside the shop, he slowly moved over and sat down by the counter, which made the older chef turned around and looked back at him, immediately asking him what he wanted.

"I'll just take a single bowl of your chicken ramen and a soda!" He said, while smiling a bit at the man, as his stomach again made a growling sound, that could clearly be heard all over the shop, not that there was anybody else in there to hear it.

Looking at him for a few seconds, the man nodded slowly in understanding, as he quickly turned around, and hurried began preparing the boy's meal.

"You just wait a few minutes, then it should be done!" The man said, with his back turned towards the young Coordinator, that on the other hand only said a small thank you back, as he watched the man get the food ready for him.

And not long after, the food and the soda was place down in front of him, where Shinn hurried took a big bite of it, chewing it slowly a few times before, he swallowed it.

"Hmmm this stuff is good" he said, while taking yet another bite of the delicious chicken ramen, enjoying the taste of it ever more this time, it wasn't often that he got food like this, seeing as the chef on the Minerva couldn't make a real meal even if his life was at stake.

So while slowly finishing of the first bowl of ramen, he decided that he want another portion before he left the small shop.

But as he continued eating the food, he just couldn't help but noticed, that there wasn't really many customers in there, which in his eyes was a bit strange, with the food this tasty.

"This place seems kinda quiet, why ain't there any more people in here?" He asked in a somewhat curious tone, while taking a small look around the shop.

Hearing the boy ask that, the man turned and looked back at him, where he gave him a small smile. "Normally the customers only shows up when it's around lunch time, and as far as I know, most of them are at work right now. But you are right, it is a bit remarkable that none of the regulars haven't shown up yet, I guess all of them are quite busy with that big job, I heard a few of them discourse yesterday" he explained, while wondering slightly if this boy was going to be the only customer, he would get today.

Hearing that Shinn nodded a few times in understanding, while he reached out after his soda can, holding on to it in a tight grip.

"I see, so where exactly does your regulars customers work?" He asked a bit curious, as he took a small sip of his soda, before he once again place the can back on the counter, then kept eating his food, while waiting for the man to give him some kind of reply to his question.

Looking a bit at the boy, the man got a slightly thoughtful look on his face. "I think most of them works over at the Morgenroete facilities nearby, but truth be told most of them seems to have been rather busy since yesterday" the man explained.

Which immediately made Shinn realize that the big job, some of them had been talking about, was most likely all the repairs, that needed to be done on the Minerva.

Not that he was going to tell the man that, so he just nodded a single time, while asking for another portion of ramen, which immediately made the chef turn around where he once again, began making the food the boy had asked for.

And even true the ramen chef, would have liked very much to have continued, the conversation with his only customer.

The boy unfortunately didn't say anything else, he pretty much kept all of his attention, turned towards the new portion ramen.

He had just placed in front of the boy, so with nothing else to do, the man reached out and picked up a water bottle that was standing beside him, and took a big mouthful from it.

Still keeping an eye on the boy, that seemed to be quite far away in his own thoughts, which seriously made him wonder, just what exactly he was thinking about.

But he didn't get anytime to ask, before the door flew open, and in stepped three more people he knew quite well.

And just seeing who they where, was enough for him to know what they wanted, so without giving the boy any more thought, he quickly turned around, and began preparing the food for them.

Which meant that he didn't see the boy stand up and throw some money on the counter, then began walking slowly towards the exit, still holding on to his can of soda, taking a small sip of it.

Just as he left the shop, with a small goodbye, that the ramen chef apparently didn't hear, seeing as he was far to busy, concentrating on making the food for his other customers.

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At the same time at another part of the island, Athrun was sitting on the terrace at his girlfriends house, working hard on the reports, about what had happened to Cagalli and him back at the Plants.

And while he knew that it was properly best, to write something about the whole mobile suit incident, and that he actually took Cagalli in to a mobile suit, and fought the three stolen gundams.

But he knew that if he wrote something like that, and Yuna end up reading the reports, there was very little doubt, that the purple hair man would ever let him hear the end of it.

He would most likely blame him for putting Cagalli in danger, and Athrun seriously didn't feel like, getting in to another argument with that man, he just didn't know when the heck to shut up.

He could whine for hours when somebody did something wrong, which yet was another reason why Athrun did not like him, he acted almost like he really believed that he was infallible, and the very same thing could be said about his father.

If Athrun had a real choice, he would have very much preferred, not to have anything at all, to do with any of the Seirans.

And he knew that he wasn't really the only one who felt that way, he had once heard Dearka mention, that more then a few of the mechanics, truly want to give the youngest Seiran a good serious beating, when he couldn't let them work in peace.

It wasn't like repairing a Murasame or an M1 Astray was the most easy task to do, and it really didn't help having some idiot, complain about every damn thing that wasn't right on the mobile suit.

He did however not get long to think about that, before a pair of slender arms was wrapped around him from behind.

"Hey, you working hard I see" Cagalli told him in a sweet tone, as she slowly leaned in to take a closer look at what he was writing on, and she could now see that it was the reports, about their somewhat amusing experiences, since they had arrived at the Plants.

But she didn't really read all that much of it, before she quickly moved in and gave his left cheek a light kiss, then slowly pulled away from him and stood up straight, where she couldn't help but smile a little at him.

"So after the meeting I have to go too, in just a little while, do you want to go see a movie or something?" She asked in a somewhat hopeful tone.

She just want to spend some time with him so badly right now.

Especially after how the meeting yesterday had ended, she still had a very tough time believing, that the Seirans and most of the other politicians, was so damn keen on joining up with the Earth Alliance.

They where after all the once who invaded them two years ago.

And even true she honestly didn't hate them too much, she just couldn't image having Orb suddenly work together with them, they where after all the once, that took her father away from her.

Why the heck did the Seirans think, it was such a good idea to join up with those people, that had killed so many Orb civilians and soldiers.

Why in God's good name was Zaft the once to blame, because a bunch of morons had been using GINNs to move Junius Seven, in her eyes Zaft had truly done everything they could, to prevent the colony from falling.

And that task would no doubt have been much easier, if Athrun and the rest of the Minervas pilots, didn't have to go up against the three stolen gundams.

If one really did take a logical look at the entire mess, it really was the Earth Forces fault that it dragged on for such a long time.

If they hadn't been up there, it would clearly have been all the much easier moving something as big as a space colony, and there might not have been nearly so much damage on the earth surface, if the Earth Forces had just minded their own business and stayed out of the way.

Unfortunately she really didn't get much time, to think about how idiotic she thought the Earth Forces truly was, before the other person on the terrace suddenly pulled her in to a soft embrace.

"I really would love to do something together Cagalli all by our self. But after considering it a long time, I have made the decision, that I need to do something about all of this, before this whole situation can escalate in to a war, that's why I'm going back to the Plants, Cagalli, to talk with the Chairman about everything that's going on" Athrun said.

While taking a short glance in to her two beautiful eyes, where he could clearly see a little sadness over the fact, that he was leaving her at a time like this.

But once he took a closer look, he could tell that she understood why he had to go. "I see, are you really sure that it is what you want?" She asked, trying her best not to show him, how uncomfortably she really was with the whole idea.

But she just couldn't bring herself, to try and stop him.

He was after going all the way back up there, in the hopes that he could help to stop another war from breaking out, and if that was something he felt like he need to do, there was no way she would stand in his way.

"Yes Cagalli, this is something I really have to do. I don't want a repeat of everything that happened two years ago, we all lost so many we cared about!" Athrun said as a few smiling faces of the more important people he had lost, quickly flashed through his mind.

And just thinking about them, was enough to make a determined look ran over both his eyes, he did not want to lose anybody else, that was something he was going to make sure of.

He was actually so busy thinking about everything, that he didn't even hear it, when Cagalli told him, that she would support him no matter what he did now.

And if going to the Plants, was what he wanted to do.

Then she would surely be here, waiting for him to come back. But just as the blond girl finished telling him all of that, she noticed that he wasn't even listening to her right now.

Seeing that Cagalli narrowed her eyes a bit, as she slowly reached down with one hand, and gave his butt a nice yet hard pinch, making sure to put just a bit of her nails in to it. Which was more then enough, to make him yell out a bit in pain.

As he immediately got back out of his thoughts, and look back at the beautiful girl in his arms, where he immediately notice the innocent cute, look that was on her face. It was obvious, that she was trying to act like, she hadn't done anything.

Something which made Athrun roll his eyes a single time, as he tighten his hold on her and smiled a bit back. And one small glance at her face, was all he need to tell, that she was happy having his attention back again.

"Here I am talking to you, and you don't even listen to me" she told him in a sweet voice, while giving him a small naughty smile.

Which again made Athrun roll his eyes at her. "Ok I'm sorry for not listening to you Cagalli, I just have a lot on my mind. But never mind that now, there was actually something I would like to ask you before I have to go" he told her in a quiet tone, while slowly reaching down to make sure that the thing he had bought a few weeks ago, was still located in his right pocket.

"What is it Athrun?" The girl asked, not doing anything to hide, how curious she was right now.

For some unknown reason, her heart was beating so much faster then usual. But what was really weird about it, was that she didn't even know why, she just had this feeling, that something very important, was about to happen.

And she could see Athrun open and close his mouth a few time, it was clear, that he was having a little trouble, finding just the right things to say.

So after standing there for a few minutes, just waiting to hear what he was going to say.

The blond curious girl was about to ask him, what was on his mind, when he suddenly pulled just a bit away from her, and got down on one knee, where he slowly pulled out a small, shiny ring box from his pocket.

And before Cagalli could get a real good look at it, he reached up and gently took her right hand, then opened the box, and took out the very expensive looking ring that was inside it.

Then before she had time, to realize what was happening, Athrun slowly slide the small piece of jewelry on her ring finger, not saying anything to her.

He just kept on sitting down there on his knee, while she slowly lifted her hand, and took a closer look at what he had just placed on her finger, and before she could do anything to stop it, a few tears slowly left both of her eyes and ran down her cheeks.

Seeing that Athrun was just about to asked her what was wrong, when she sat down in front of him and hugged him tightly.

"Of course I will marry you Athrun, there is nobody else in this world I would rather spend my life with!" She told him.

Just as a few more happy tears ran down her face, not that the newly engaged couple noticed that, they where far to busy watching each other, while their lips slowly came together.

Each of them kissing each other with as much passion, as they could right now, they where actually so far away in their little moment.

That they didn't even noticed. that Myrna was watching them also with a few happy tears running down her face.

Seeing Athrun propose to Cagalli like this, was just so sweet and romantic. And it really was a delight to see, so after just standing there looking at them a bit longer, she slowly turned away and left with the tea she had decide to bring to them.

There was no way, she could bring herself to disturbe them at a time like this, they truly did deserved to be by them self right now.

And if anybody want to talk with Cagalli about anything, they just had to wait until the couple was done celebrate their engagement. But even as she was thinking about that, she could not help, but smile happily to herself, as she softly mumbled a few words.

"Congratulations you two" she quietly said to herself in a light tone, that nobody else could hear, as she placed the tray she was carrying on a small table, then pulled out a silky handkerchief from her pocket.

Which she quickly used, to dry away the few tears on her cheeks, to make absolutely certain that nobody of the other house staff, could see that she had crying just now.

She seriously didn't want to tell anybody, about what she had just witnessed.

And once she was completely sure that all the tears was gone, she again picked up the tray and continued the rest of the way to the kitchen, still with a truly pleased and happy smile on her face.

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Meanwhile another place on the island, a certain married couple was walking slowly along the beach holding hands, each of them enjoying the sight of the bright blue ocean.

They where however not alone, Mayu was walking a bit behind.

But instead of looking at the nice view, she had all of her attention turned downwards towards the sand, obviously looking for amber, something she was actually quite good at.

She had already found a few minor pieces, not something she really felt like showing of to Kira and Lacus, seeing as they where all quite small.

She was completely determined right now, to try and find a much bigger piece, then the one she had given her mom last year at her birthday, the almost giant piece that was now hanging around Murrue's neck, together with a truly beautiful looking ring. Her step-mother had once told her, that somebody very special had given to her.

And even true Mayu had been curious about knowing who exactly that was, she could easily tell that it brought her mother a great deal of sadness just thinking about it. So in the end she had decided not to ask about it back then.

But after some time her, curiosity had won her over, and she had decided to ask Kira about, who had given her mother that pretty ring.

He however, had looked just as depressed about the subject as her mother.

But after a few long minutes, he did tell her a few things about the man, who had given the ring to Murrue.

And just by hearing that tone of voice, her big brother figure had used when he was talking about this person, was more then enough to tell Mayu, that he had a great deal of respected for the blond man.

Something Mayu had also gotten, when Kira had mention that Mu had been the one to save both herself, and her mother at some point in time.

And even true Mayu honestly had no memories, of ever meeting the blond man.

She was still grateful for everything he had done for her, and the most precious person in her life right now, she didn't even want to thinking about what kind of crazy family, she could have end up with, had Murrue not adopted her.

"Hey Mayu! Any luck back there?" Lacus asked, interrupting her thoughts about her mother and the blond man, she only knew through stories and the few pictures she had seen of him.

Not that she had anything against talking with Lacus.

It wasn't like she had volunteer to join them on their walk, to just wander around in her own mind. She had already done that more then enough yesterday, while she was walking home from school.

So after picking up yet another small piece of amber, she turned her eyes over on Lacus.

"No there isn't that much out here Lacus, I really want to find a much bigger piece, then the one I gave mom at her birthday. But I really don't think I'm going to be that lucky, it really does seems like somebody else have clean the beach from all the amber that is down here, those pieces I found, can't really be used for anything" the girl said, a bit angry that she hadn't found what she was really looking for.

Hearing the brown hair girl say that, Lacus dropped her husband hand and walked back to Mayu, where her eyes slowly ran over the sand, hoping to find just what the younger girl was looking so hard for.

But unfortunately, the pink hair girl didn't have as much experience, in finding amber as Mayu had.

That on the other hand, did not mean she hadn't found something, just not nearly as big a piece, as the one miss Murrue had around her neck.

Seeing that the two girls, was now busy trying to find amber, Kira made the decision, to continue a bit on his own, there was actually a place not that far from there he would like to see.

Up until now he had never really taken the time for that. Even true he knew, that it was around that place, Mu had picked up Mayu in the last war, and taken her in to the Strike.

So after watching the two girls a bit longer, he turned and walked of not saying anything to either of them. Seeing as he really did not want to disturb them, now that they where busy.

It only took the brown hair teen, about ten minutes to reach the place he was heading for, once there he slowly walked over, to the small memorial, that was located at the end, of the somewhat strange place.

For some unknown reason, he just couldn't help but feel like this place, was somewhat empty.

It almost felt a bit like he was the first person, to set foot there in years.

But after feeling like that for a few seconds, he quickly gave his head a small yet hard shook, trying to get rid of those unwanted feelings, and once he succeed in that, he again turned his attention back towards the monument.

Wondering slightly who exactly it was for, not that he got much time to try and figure that out, before he heard steps behind, which he of course expect to be Lacus and Mayu.

But he was a bit surprised, by seeing a another boy, that looked a bit like he was a few years younger then him.

Yet before Kira had anytime, to figure out where exactly this boy had suddenly showed up from, he took a few steps closer to him, and looked at the cenotaph.

"Is this a memorial?" He asked Kira, sounding somewhat angry about the whole thing, it was obvious that he was far from happy, finding something like that here.

Which really made Kira confused, he didn't understand why this person was sounding so upset. But he figure that it might be best, to just answer him, he seriously didn't feel like getting in to a argument, with a complete stranger.

So after looking at the other boy a bit longer, he turned and took another glance back at the monument.

"Yes it is, but to tell you the truth, it's the first time I have ever been here, so I don't really know all that much about it" Kira explained, while smiling sadly at the other boy, that just nodded a single time, as he reached out and ran his hand over the stone in front of them.

He did however not do that for long, before he turned and got ready to leave again.

But before he got very far, Kira heard him muttered something that sounded very much like, he truly hated this place, and that Orb could have done so much more.

"What do you mean by that?" Kira asked, while blinking a few times in confusion, he really didn't understand that boy.

But the boy didn't really gave him much of an answer he just smiled sadly at him, before he began talking again.

"I'm sorry, it's nothing I was just thinking out loud" he said, while glaring a bit more at the monument, before he turned away again and walked of with great haste, obviously not planing to spend any more time there, then he had too.

Which meant it didn't take long before, the only thing Kira could see of the strange person was his back disappearing in the distance.

"He really was a odd person!" Kira mumbled loudly, as he slowly turned his eyes away from the boy he had just been talking with, and back towards the monument, still thinking about the bizarre conversation he had just had.

It was just about the same time, another voice interrupted his thoughts. "Who exactly is weird Kira? I don't see anybody else here then you!" Mayu said in a slightly loud tone, while taking a good look around the place, clearly trying to find, whoever it was Kira had just been talking about.

But as far as she could tell, there wasn't anybody else nearby, so in the end she again looked back at Kira, that was now holding on to Lacus' hand, and was busy looking at the monument again.

But even as he was doing that, he still gave her a reply. "I didn't really knew him Mayu, he just showed up from out of nowhere, and watched the monument for a bit, after that he said something about hating this place, and then disappeared even fast then he had showed up" Kira said, in a somewhat thoughtful tone, as he felt Lacus give his left hand a small gentle squeeze, which he immediately returned.

Hearing Kira tell her that, what the person that had been here before had said about this place.

Mayu couldn't help, but get a deep unhappy frown on her forehead. For some inexplicable reason, she always felt like this very place, was suppose to be important to her.

Even true she just couldn't figure out why, it was like at it had something to do with her past, but she just couldn't recall what exactly it was.

But the few times she had been here before, a small part of her always felt like crying, not that she ever did.

It was after all a bit stupid, crying for over something you didn't knew what was, that however didn't mean that she liked it, when other people was saying bad things about this place.

"We should find that guy, and give him a good beating, this is a memorial after all, so he really shouldn't be so disrespectful!" The girl said, in a loud tone, while taking another look around, after the guy who had been badmouthing this place.

Smiling a bit at his little sister figure's anger, Kira reached out and placed his free hand on her head.

"I think it's best we just let him go Mayu, we can't really expect everybody to like such place like this. I'm sure, a lot people out there don't like being remind of the last war, and maybe he is one of them" the brown hair man said, before he again looked back at the memorial.

Thinking a few minutes about Kira's words, the girl finally nodded slowly in agreement. "Ok I guess you are right Kira, but I really hope he wouldn't show up here again, and do something bad to this place, like knocking that stone over, it has to stay there no matter what" Mayu said in a far away tone, as she tried to figure out just why, this place was so important to her.

And why she was feeling upset, that some stranger she didn't even know, had said something nasty about the memorial.

And it was just about that time, when a few tears left her eyes and began running slowly down her cheeks.

Seeing that Lacus immediately pulled away from Kira, and moved over and pulled the smaller girl in to a tight embrace, slowly rubbing her hands up and down her back.

"Just let it out Mayu" Lacus told her in a gentle voice, deeply hoping to make the small brown hair girl feel better.

This was far from the first time, Mayu had began crying for no reason at all, that frequently happened, when she was trying to remember something from her past.

But she never actually did regain any of her memories, so in the end she would always began crying softly instead.

And that one time, they had asked her why she did that, she could not find any kind of reply, it was like the whole thing was completely locked away, some place far in the back of her mind.

Kira on the other hand didn't really say anything, as he stood there watching his wife hold on to the eleven-year-old girl.

Even true it really didn't happen all that often any more, neither of them liked it, when Mayu had one of her episodes, it was always such a painful thing to witness.

And what made it even worse, was that there was nothing they could do to help her out, the only once that could comfort her a bit when she was like this, was miss Murrue and at rare times Lacus.

So after standing there looking at the two females a bit more, Kira took a single step forward and kneel down beside them.

"Maybe it would be a good idea, for us to get home, it wouldn't be long before it gets dark out here" he said in a quiet tone, that made both of the girls look over at him, where he gave each of them a small yet a caring smile.

But none of them really said anything back, Lacus just took a small glance over the horizon, where she could see the sun descending slowly.

Which mean that Kira was right, it wouldn't be that long now, before it got dark out there, and even true Lacus truly disliked, pulling away from Mayu when she was like this.

The pink hair girl knew, that it was a very good idea to get her home as quickly as possible, so after giving the girl one last squeeze, Lacus slowly got up on her feet and reached down to help the brown hair girl up.

But she didn't show any kind of a reaction to Lacus hand, she just continued sitting there on the ground, with a far away expression on her face.

It was only when Kira reached down, to pick up the girl so he could carry her back to the house, that she finally snapped out of her light depression and stood up on her own.

"Lets get going, I really miss mom right now" she said in a tired tone, as she reached out and took a hold on both of their hands, for some reason every time she had one of her small outburst, she was always very keen on being near the people she was close to.

With that the three of them slowly left the memorial. But even as they where walking home like that, the married couple couldn't help, but take a few small glances both at the brown hair girl and over at each other.

But as far as they could tell, she did seem to be feeling better, not that they knew for sure, the only one that could really tell if Mayu was ok after this, was Murrue and unfortunately she wasn't there at the moment.

So they just had to get home, in a hurry incase she would have another outburst. But when Mayu softly began singing, Lacus' favorite song, both of the teenagers let out small relieved sigh, as they each visibly relax.

Once Mayu began singing, there wasn't many chance of another outburst, and it didn't take long, before her voice got even louder, which showed them, that she was back to her usual happy mood.

Something both Lacus and Kira was where very happy about, not that they said anything about it, they just kept walking enjoying Mayu's song.

As she kept trying to get it just right, but there was always a certain part of the song she would get wrong no matter how many times she would try singing it.

And this time was really no different, which was more then enough to make her mumble out a few small courses, just as she once again began practicing on the song, now all the more determined to get the whole thing correct.

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At the same time not that far away from where the married couple and Mayu was, a certain person was slowly heading back to Minerva.

Even true the day had far from been perfect, Shinn was still feeling somewhat satisfied with everything he had done today, he had been over most of the city seeing all of the place he used to spend time with his family, he had both been back at their house.

Where a guy, with some strange looking glasses was apparently living together with his wife, or girlfriend.

Not that Shinn was entirely sure about what she was to the boy, the only thing he had noticed about her was that she had long red hair and seemed very bossy and loud.

By the way she kept yelling at the boy, that much to his small amazement seemed to do pretty much everything she told him to do, not that he stayed there to watch them for long.

Before he had turned around, and left the place, he really didn't want any of them to ask him what, he was hanging around there for.

After that, he had gone to the small park, he and the rest of the family, used to go to, when they need a few hours away from the house.

Not that there had been much to see there, other then a few children playing together and their parents making a barbecue or something like that, he hadn't really stay there long, before he had quickly turned away and left the park again.

He seriously didn't feel like standing around there, watching other people having a good time.

So once he got out of the annoying cheerful park, he had found himself walking in the direction of the dreadful place, where he had lose both of his parents and his little sister.

And even true, the entire trip there, had felt like it had taken a forever, it only took him about a small half hour to get there.

But once he got there, he hadn't really stayed there for all that long, it wasn't like he want to go there in the first place, there was just a small part of him that felt like it was very important that he pay a visit to the damn place, where his entire life had been thrown in to disaster, before the Minerva was fully repaired, and was ready to leave Orb.

Unfortunately much to his small irritation, he wasn't the only person there, some other guy had been there looking at the memorial.

And it wasn't like he could just tell that guy to leave the place, because he want to be alone. So without giving it much thought, he had quickly decided to leave the place, before he would said something, to the other boy, that would get him in trouble.

It wasn't like all the damage on the Minervas was already fixed, so he could always head back there at some point tomorrow.

Not that he was entirely sure, if he really want to see that place again, he truly hated just how it looked now, why couldn't Orb have given his family a grave, that was at least a bit more honorable, instead of some small pitiful memorial, nobody but him knew the true meaning of.

"Damn! I wonder when we can get out of here" the boy sigh loudly in a tired tone, while thinking about how many days, it would take getting the Minerva ready to kick the ass, of everything that got in the ships way.

Unfortunately the dark hair teenager had no idea, about how much time it would take, getting everything on the grey space ship up and running again.

As he didn't have the slightest idea, about what kind of condition, the Minerva was in. Seeing as he hadn't really given the ship all that much attention, when he had left her, hopefully it would only take a few short days, before they could leave Orb.

It was only shortly there after. before he could see the Morgenroete facilities he had left early this morning.

And it wasn't much later, before he was directly in front of the two guards, that was standing by the entrance of the giant harbor, where one of them immediately asked him in a loud tone, if he had any kind of business there, and if he didn't he should hurry and go home.

Hearing the guard talk to him like that, Shinn couldn't help but narrow his eyes just a bit, he seriously wasn't in the mood to deal with a guy like this right now.

The only thing he really want at the moment, was get a little dinner and then get to bed and sleep for a few hours.

But he already knew, that the guard was just doing his job, not something Shinn could really blame him for, no matter how idiotic he found the whole idea of working for Orb.

So after looking at the guard a bit long he slowly pulled out his ID and showed it to the man.

That hurried scratch it out of his hand, and investigated it thoroughly, and it only took him about a small minute, to realize that the boy was a part of the Minerva's crew and was fully permitted to enter the harbor.

"Hmm everything seems to be in order, here you go" the man said in a somewhat thoughtful tone, while giving Shinn back his ID.

That took it in the same hasty way, the man had taken it from Shinn in the first place.

And once it was place securely back in his right pocket, the boy hurried reached out and opened the door to the harbor, not waiting to hear, if any of the guards had anything else to say to him, he seriously didn't feel like talking with those two any more then he had too.

He might have promised Nicol, not to pick on the blond bitch, but that of course, did not mean he couldn't be a bit rude, to the rest of the Orb personnel.

Truth be told, he actually thought those two guards he had just meet deserved his rude behaviour, they seriously did act like, they own the God damn place.

And there was just no way in hell, he would let them think something like that, when he was around.

He did however not think about the two morons all that long, before he slowly shook his head and continued making his way towards Minerva, determined not to think any more about Orb tonight.

To be continued.

I'm sorry to disappoint you guys, who where hoping to see the green swimsuit from the last chapter, but there wasn't really any places where I could fit it in, to this chapter.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

It was a few days after Mayu had her small outburst.

And much to everybody's relief there hadn't been another one since, which meant that it did not take long, before the house was back to it's normal routine, all of the inhabitant of the house enjoying the peace and quiet.

Even true they each had that feeling, that something was just about to boil over, not that they had said anything about it.

They all just truly hoped that the world, wouldn't continued on it's present course.

Everything really did seemed like it was ready to explode at any minute now, not that any of the household was worried about that right now, everybody there where pretty much in their rooms fast asleep.

The only person up right now was Dearka, that was busy using the Internet to chat with his girlfriend, that still hadn't been home since the whole mess with Junius Seven.

And even true he hadn't mention to anybody, he was actually begin to get worried about her.

He seriously didn't like the idea of her being out there with all the trouble, that seemed to be hiding just under the surface.

It was like just one word would make the whole thing get out of hand, and he really didn't want Miriallia to be out there when that finally happened, not that he could tell her to come home, she would without a doubt say no to that, it wasn't really like her being stubborn was something new.

It was just about that time she wrote to him, that she was going to bed now and that he should do the same it was after all quite late, and both of them did have things they need to do tomorrow.

With that she immediately got off line, leaving Dearka to just sit there watching the computer screen that was standing in front of him, still thinking about how much he would have liked for her to come back here, before anything else could happen.

"Well good night Mir" He mumbled in a somewhat tired voice, while looking up at the ceiling, with Miriallia's happy face running through his mind.

He did truly hoped with all of his heart, that nothing would happen to her while she was out there.

If she did end up getting hurt or something like that, he seriously didn't think he would be able to take it, he had already lost more then a few friends in the last war, something that from time to time still hurt quite a lot.

And there was just no way, he could handle losing the woman he loved more then anything else. "Ahhh man this really is annoying" he quietly said to himself, while he reached out and took a hold on the glass of apple juice, that was standing in front of him, and brought it up to his mouth where he slowly drained the small glass from the rest of the liquid inside it.

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Meanwhile some other place in the house, Kira was fast asleep with his lovely pink hair wife laying just next to him.

And even true the two of them really looked cute and adorable right now, a drop of sweat slowly began running down his forehead, as he quickly turned over and made a somewhat unhappy growl sound, and it was just shortly after that he almost flew up from the bed.

Where he immediately took a few deep long breaths, while thinking about the nightmare he had just had.

Even at this exact moment he could still hear everything Rau Le Creuset had said to him, when he had fought against him and the Providence two years ago, even now he could still clearly remember how it's DRAGOONs had been coming at him, destroying more and more things on the Freedom.

"Damn that was some nightmare" the brown hair boy mumbled somewhat quietly, as he slowly reached up, and used his left hand to dry away, some of the liquid that was still covering most of his face.

But even as he did that, he just couldn't forget some of the last words, the insane mask man had said to him in the heat of the battle.

The whole thing about the purpose of humanity continued running through his mind, and no matter how long he sat there trying to think about something else.

He just couldn't get his thoughts away from the mask man's words, and everything that was going on all over the world right now. He really didn't want to experience another war, he and the people he cared about, had already lost more then enough of their loved once.

And there was just no way he want for any of them to go through that kind of sadness again.

But even as he sat there with those thoughts on his mind, the brown hair boy slowly stood up from the bed, where he took a small glance over at Lacus that was still sleeping peacefully on her side of the bed, even after being married to her for two whole years now.

It still did amazed him from time to time, that she could sleep so strongly no matter what.

And he couldn't deny that watching her, did make him feel a little better after the nightmare, he had just had.

Yet he only watched her for a few short seconds, before he turned away, and began heading towards the door, determined to get something cold to drink, and some much needed fresh air.

And it wasn't much later before he reached the living room, where the first thing he noticed, was that the light was on and that another one of the people living in the house, was sitting over in front of the computer that was in the room.

And just one look at Dearka's face, was more then enough to tell Kira, that the former Zaft pilot was far away in the video game, he was playing right now.

Unwilling to disturb the other boy in his game, Kira slowly walked the rest of the way over to the kitchen, still listening a bit to the noise, from whatever game Dearka was playing.

"Maybe I should ask him tomorrow, if that game is any good" Kira quietly said to himself.

Just as he walked over to the cabinet to find a glass, and it wasn't much later, before he was standing in front of the sink, waiting a bit impatiently, for the water to get just the right temperature.

It did however not take long, before he could finally satisfied his thirst.

So once that task was out of the way, he place the used glass beside the sink, then turn around and began making his way back out of the kitchen, this time heading towards the balcony for some air.

But he didn't really get all that far, before he heard a familiar voice call out to him.

"Yo Kira! What are you doing up this late? It's over two a clock" Dearka said, as he looked away from the screen, and over at the watch that was hanging on the wall, where he saw that he wasn't entirely right, about the time.

But he didn't really think it was necessary to mention that to his obviously tired friend, that by now was also looking at the watch, with a far away expression on his face, that really made Dearka wonder, what the other boy was thinking so hard about.

It wasn't all that often that the former pilot of the Freedom, would be up this late, the only times that happened was when something was bothering him.

And it really didn't take a genius to figure out, that Kira had a lot on his mind at the moment.

So after watching him a bit longer, Dearka decided to repeat the question, about what Kira was doing up this late.

Hearing Dearka ask him that again, Kira finally looked away from the clock and over at his friend, that was still sitting by the computer screen, looking at him with a curious expression on his face.

But that didn't get Kira to say anything, he just stood there thinking hard about, if it really was a good idea, to tell Dearka why he was awake.

The former Buster pilot wasn't really known for being a person somebody would talk with about stuff like that.

Both he and Lacus had heard, Miriallia complain more then a few times, about how insensitive Dearka could be, something that had actually been quite entertain to listen to.

But no matter what kind of thing Dearka did to make the brown hair girl mad, he would always find some strange way to apologize to her, which really showed them all, just how much he actually did loved Mir.

And even true Kira seriously didn't feel like listening to Dearka's bad jokes right now, he really did need a friend to talk with about this.

And Lacus was still fast asleep back in their room. And there was just no way he would wake her up at a time like this, waking her doing the night was actually one of the few things, that could get her mad at him, luckily he had only succeed in doing that a couple of times in the past.

So after standing there a bit longer, Kira let out a small breath, as he closed his eyes a few seconds. "I had a nightmare about the past!" The brown hair teen said.

Just as he again saw Rau Le Creuset's laughing face, ran through his mind one more time, which was more then enough to make his mind wander back, to his deadly battle with the mask man's grey mobile suit.

He was actually so far away in his own thoughts, that he almost didn't heard it when Dearka asked him, what his nightmare had been about.

And even true he was still feeling a little hesitation, about answering the question, it did not take long, before he slowly opened his mouth again. "It was about Rau Le Creuset and my fight with the Providence gundam!" The brown hair teen said, in a loud yet far away tone.

Hearing his friend say those words, Dearka immediately let out some kind of sound that made it clear, that he almost felt like throwing up at what Kira had just told him.

But it didn't take long, before he found something to say back.

"Couldn't you have found something at least a bit more cheerful to dream about, what about something with you and Lacus out on a date, or perhaps something a bit more naughty" Dearka said, as he too thought about his former commander.

Just the thought alone was more then enough to make a small shiver run down his spine, while thinking about how close the lunatic had been in killing him in the past.

It really was a depressing subject, but that didn't mean, he couldn't talk about it.

"So what exactly happened in that dream Kira?" Dearka asked, a bit afraid to know the answer, seeing as he could still remember almost everything, Kira had told him about his battle with the mask man.

And the reply he got for the question, again made a light shiver run through him.

"It was the whole thing about his completely insane view on mankind" Kira told him.

Just as he turned away from Dearka and walked back in to the kitchen, to get yet another glass of water, for some reason his throat just felt so dry right now, and there was just no way, he could continued the conversation like this.

It did however not take him long to realize that he wasn't alone in there, Dearka had followed him and was already over by one of the cabinets, rummaging through it quite loudly, obviously looking for something he could eat.

And it didn't even take a minute before he pulled out about three candy bars, where he immediately ripped the paper away from the first one, then he hurried took a big bite of the chocolate, chewing it slowly a few times, before he finally swallowed the unhealthy food.

Seeing him do that Kira too reached out and took one of the candy bars, and began eating it in a much slower pace then Dearka.

But even as that was happening, the two boys didn't really say anything.

They both just stood there, each of them thinking their own thoughts about the last Bloody Valentine war. And it was only after the former Buster pilot, had finished of the last of the candy bars, that the deep silence was brought to an end.

"So why do you think you where dreaming about the crazy bastard?" Dearka asked, as he reached out and picked up the paper from his two candy bars.

He already knew that just leaving them on the table, would get him in trouble with miss Murrue.

And he really didn't want to get on that woman's bad side, she was after all the one in charge when he was at work, and he seriously didn't want her to give him even more work, to do.

What he had now was more then enough, fortunately he did have the day of tomorrow, that was actually the reason why he was up this late, normally he would have been fast asleep by now.

It was just about that time he saw Kira slowly leaving the kitchen, and without really giving it much thought, he quickly followed his friend, that was obviously heading for the balcony.

Once out there it took a few minutes before Kira gave the other boy a response.

"I don't know why I was dreaming about him, but it might have something to do with everything that's happening right now. I just can't help but feel, concerned about where all of this is heading" Kira said, while looking at the almost completely clear night sky.

Luckily there wasn't many clouds out right now, so the view was actually quite nice. Not that any of them gave it much attention, they had far more important subject to talk about.

"Well I am glad to hear, that I'm not the only one who got a bad feeling about all of this. I mean the Plants really does seem, to be doing everything they can to make sure, that there wouldn't be another war. But on the other hand, the Earth Forces is almost screaming for blood right now" Dearka said, thinking about what he had seen on the news tonight, after everybody else had gone to bed.

Hearing the other boy say that, Kira looked away from the night sky and over at his friend where he was just about to say something back.

When suddenly the door to the balcony flew open and Lacus stepped out, looking a few times between her husband and the other boy, wondering what could be so important, that they had to talk about it in the middle of the night.

"What are the two of you doing out here this late?" She asked, while tighten the small knot on her blue robe.

She seriously didn't want Dearka to see what she had on underneath the fluffy robe.

But one short glance over at him, was enough to make her realize, that he was actually far more busy, looking up at the night sky.

Which made her feel a bit more relaxed, she hadn't really thought, when she woke up not long ago and saw that Kira was gone, that he was actually out there talking with Dearka, it was after all quite late.

It was just about that time, when she noticed, that Kira was watching her, with a far away expression on his face, but he didn't do that for very long, before he let out a small breath.

"We where just talking about everything that's going on in the world right now, both of us is kind worried about what's going to happen next" Kira explained.

Just as he reached over and gently placed his right arm around his wife's waist, pulling her close.

Even true it was almost completely dark out there, with the moon as the only source of light. It was still quite obvious for Kira, that his pink haired wife was freezing right now, even with the thick robe on.

Which wasn't really much of a surprise, the ocean wind that was softly blowing over the three of them, could be kinda chilly from time to time.

And Lacus really didn't spend all that much time, wandering around outside in the middle of the night. Especially dressed in nothing else, but the few pieces of clothes she had on now.

So after making extra sure, that he was giving her at least some of his body heat. Kira was just about to explain to her, what he and Dearka had been discoursing out there.

But before he could even get his mouth open, Dearka's voice suddenly cut him of quite loudly.

"AHH damn it all to hell! Why the heck did they have to go that far?" The former Buster piloted asked, with a both angry and shocked expression plastered all over his face, not once taking his eyes away from the night sky.

And even true the married couple, was confused over his sudden colourful words.

It did not take very long, before they too where looking at the almost black sky, where both of them immediately saw a great deal of familiar looking pink lights, that made both of their eyes widen in disbelief.

"Are those.....?" Lacus asked sounding just as shocked over this as Dearka, but it took almost a minute, before one of the boys, gave her some kind of reply.

"Those are the flashes of nuclear explosions" Kira said in a far away tone.

Just as he once again, saw a Rau Le Creuset's laughing face flash through his mind, and he could now almost hear the mad-man telling him, that the only way to bring peace to humanity, was for it to simply disappear from this disgusting world.

And that no matter how much time would go by, there was just no way that a species such as humans, would ever stop fighting with each other.

It was only when Lacus called out a few unhappy words of her own that Kira finally got his mind away from the maniac and back to the present.

But that did not mean, he had anything to say. He just stood there holding his wife, in a tight embrace, while looking straight up at the sky, as the many lights up there, began slowly fading away once more.

Seeing that they slowly looked away from the sky, each of them thinking their own thoughts, about what they had just witness.

And it almost took ten minutes, before Dearka again mumbled out a few minor curses.

"Damn it all, I had really hoped that it wouldn't have ended up like this" the teen said in a somewhat depressed tone, while thinking about what they had just seen.

He seriously hoped that the Zaft military up there, had somehow succeed in stopping all of the warheads from hitting any of the Plants. He truly didn't want something as horrifying, as the Bloody Valentine Tragedy to happen again.

But even as the former Zaft soldier, had all of those thoughts going through his head. He didn't get any kind of reply from the married couple, which made him slowly turn his attention over towards them.

Where he immediately noticed that they where just standing there in a deep silence, holding on to each other, both of them quite obviously feeling just as shocked and depressed, over all of this as he was.

So after watching them for a few seconds, he couldn't help but let out a long sad sigh, as he again turned and looked up at the night shy, for any more signs of nuclear explosions.

So after Dearka's last few curses, nothing else was said between them.

They just kept standing there, for almost a half hour, before the pink hair girl, in the company brought the almost unbearable silence to a hold.

"Believe me you two, I feel just as terrible about this as you do. But there isn't really much all that any of us can do right now, so perhaps it would be a good idea to get some rest, that way none of us will be tired, when we have to tell miss Murrue and Mr Waltfeld about this" Lacus said in a sad tone, while taking a few short glances between the two boys.

Where she could easily tell, that both of them where completely exhausted at the moment.

Which was enough to make her reach out, and slowly wrapped her fingers around Kira's hand, where she gently began pulling him along, back towards the still open door.

"Please come in too Dearka, it wouldn't do you any good standing around out here any longer" the pink hair girl said.

Just as she turned and took a small look back at the former Buster pilot, that was now slowly following her and Kira back in to the house, without saying a single thing, to what she had just said.

And the only thing he did, when they got inside, was turn off the computer, not even bothering to take the time, to save the game he had been playing before.

Seeing his friend do that, was all Kira need to tell, just how angry Dearka was right now, and one look in to Lacus' eyes made it pretty clear, that she too was just as upset about this, as he and Dearka was.

But she was right there wasn't a single thing they could do about it, the Plants was after all quite far away, and even if they did have someway to help, there was just no way they could get out there, fast enough.

So they might as well get some sleep, even true Kira honestly didn't believe that he could fall asleep, with everything he had seen not that long ago.

"How could it end up like this again?" The brown hair teenager asked quietly, getting both Lacus and Dearka to look over at him, unfortunately none of them had any kind of response, to what Kira had just asked them.

"I don't know Kira, I really don't know" Lacus said in a far away tone, while she slowly walked in to the kitchen, to find something which the three of them could eat, before they would go back to their rooms to try and get some sleep.

And it only took a few minutes, before she came out again, holding on to a small tray that was filled with a few pieces of fresh fruit, that Dearka was quick to reach out and grab a piece of.

Happy to see that Dearka hadn't completely lost his appetite, Lacus smiled a bit as she slowly turned and looked over at Kira, asking him with her eyes if he wanted a piece of the fruit too.

Yet it took a few moments, before Kira finally realized what his pink hair wife was asking him, and just as she was about to put the tray down on the coffee table.

He reached out and took a single piece of the offered fruit, which he of course chewed a few times before he swallowed it.

After that he slowly walked over and sat down on the couch beside Lacus, that by now was also eating some of the food, she had brought out to them, but even as she was doing that, she just couldn't help but grab on to Kira's hand, holding on to it tightly.

And it was only shortly after, that a single sentence lifted Lacus lips. "I really hope that nobody was hurt up there" the pink hair girl sighed, in a thoughtful tone.

Not that any of the boys said anything back, they just nodded slowly in agreement, both of them thinking almost the exact same thing as Lacus.

It did however not take long, before Kira stood up from the black couch, where he slowly stretched both arms up over his head, then reached down to help Lacus up from the couch.

After doing that, the two of them turned and began heading back to their room, each of them saying good-night to Dearka, before they disappeared down the hall.

Seeing them go like that, it didn't take long before Dearka had chewed down yet another piece of the delicious fruit, and was now heading towards his and Miriallia's room.

Hoping that it wouldn't take too long, before he would fall asleep, even without having the girl he loved sleeping beside him.

Even true if somebody asked him, he could quite honestly say, that he wouldn't mind having her resting beside him tonight.

But unfortunately, it would take sometime, before she would get back home from the job she was out on now, which meant that he really didn't have any other options, then to sleep by himself for the rest of the night.

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The next day after the nuclear attack, Athrun was being lead through the Plants capital Aprilius, for the meeting he was suppose to have with Chairman Durandal.

He was however, begin to seriously doubt, he would be able to see the Chairman today, much least talk with him.

After everything he had seen so far, most of the Plants citizens was pretty much in a panic after the attack, not that anybody could blame them.

It wasn't really nice to know that somebody had been crazy enough, to try and use something as destructive and deadly as nuclear missiles.

And it really made the blue hair teenager wonder, what the heck was going through the Earth Forces mind, wasn't it bad enough, they used those damn missiles in the last war.

Why the hell did they have to go so far this quickly, the Plants had after all been trying to find a diplomatic solution for all of this mess, so why in God's name was it that the Earth Forces, found it necessary to do something like this.

"Damn, I had really hoped the Chairman could have found someway to prevent something like this from happening" the boy muttered in a angry tone, then stopped when he heard a familiar voice travel down the hall.

It took him a few seconds to recognize it, mostly because that specific person was not suppose to be up there.

But when he finally did realized who exactly that voice belonged too, he got even more confused.

Seeing as there was just no way she could be up there, she was suppose to be back home in Orb together with Kira, not up here, and just how did she get there before him.

He did however not get all that long to figure it out, when suddenly he saw a pink hair girl come running towards, calling out his name in a loud happy tone.

"Athrun it's so good to see you!" She said, while looking straight in to his eyes and hugging him tightly, but even as she was doing that Athrun took a quick look around after his best friend.

There was no way he want Kira to see this, if that was to happen Athrun was almost sure, that his friend would break both of his arms, but once he was completely sure that Kira wasn't around, he again looked back at the girl that was still holding on to him.

"Lacus just what in the world are you doi....?" That was pretty much all he got out, when he realize that the strange pink hair girl, was not who he thought it was.

The way she was hanging was clearly not something Lacus would do, and the almost erotic way this strange girl was dressed, was not something Lacus would ever do.

It was way to revealing from Lacus normal choice of clothes, and the blood red Haro that was jumping up and down beside her, was not something he or Kira had made, which meant that this girl had gotten it from another source.

Not that Athrun could tell from where exactly. Unfortunately he did not get long to think about that, before the excited girl tighten her grip on him, and tried to move even closer to him.

But once she did that, Athrun instantly got his mind back on track, he could already image the angry deadly looks, Cagalli and Kira would give him if they saw him in this situation.

So before the girl could do anything else he, quickly reached up and push her arms away, then hurried took a long step back, not once taking his confused green eyes away, from the weird girl in front of him.

But even true he had pushed so her away like that, still had a huge smile on her cheerful face, as she again began talking to him using Lacus' voice. "I have really been looking forward to see you again!" She said, while trying to embrace him one more time.

But Athrun made sure to stay out of the pink hair girls reached. "Who exactly are....?" That was pretty much all he got out, before he heard Gilbert Durandal call out his name, as he came walking slowly other towards them.

"Well hello Athrun, it's good to see you again, especially after everything that happened at Junius Seven" the chairman said, with a friendly smile on his face.

Just as he got over next to them, looking first at Athrun for a few short seconds, thinking about the meeting he was going to have with the boy, he might have been kind busy since the nuclear attack.

That however did not mean, he didn't have a few ideas about how he could win the boy's loyalty, and get him to rejoin Zaft again.

But for now it was properly best to just talk with the teenager, so after watching him a bit longer, he turned his head and looked over at the pink hair girl, briefly think about how useful, she was going to be in the near future.

There wasn't many people around up there, that could see the differences between the real Lacus Clyne, and this fake one he had used so much time and money to have made, she really was a perfect lookalike.

Especially now that her face had been changed through some real professional surgery to look like Kira Yamato's wife, he did however not think about that for long, before he began speaking to her in his usual kind tone.

"I know that the two of you have just meet again, but don't you have something important to do miss Lacus?" He asked, making the girl look away from Athrun and over at him, where he even with the kind smile on his face told her that he had something to talk with Athrun about, and that she and him could catch up once he was done with that.

Hearing the man said that, the strange pink hair girl quickly reached down, and pinked up the red Haro that was rolling around a few centimeters from her right foot.

After retrieving the small round robot from the floor, the girl stood back up and gave Athrun a caring smile. "I look forward to talk with you later Athrun, it was very nice seeing you again" the pink hair woman said, even true this was the first time the two of them had ever meet.

After that she turned around and of towards a blond woman, that had been standing a bit away from them, while all of this was happening, once over there she told the woman that she was ready to leave.

Which meant that the two of them hurried walked of, with both Athrun and the Chairman looking after them, until they where out of sight.

"But that was...." Athrun tried to say.

But stopped when he saw the black hair man beside him slowly lifted up his hand and shook his head a few times.

After that he told him in a quiet tone that he would explain everything about this later, once they got to his office and could sit down and rest their feet a bit.

Something that Athrun could really use, seeing as he had been walking around quite a bit today.

And even true it was done with a bit of hesitation, the blue haired teenager nodded slowly in understanding, as he followed the Chairman towards the exit of the giant chamber, where he had meet the strange girl that looked so much like Lacus, that it was actually a tiny bit creepy.

And no matter what kind of explanation the new Chairman, had about this other Lacus.

Athrun was quite certain that it was going to be very interesting.

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"Please come on in Athrun and make yourself comfortable!" Gilbert said while opening the door to his office, then made a kind gestured with his hand that showed the teenager, that he was welcome to go in first.

And seeing the black hair man do that, Athrun nodded his thanks and enter the room, with the Chairman following just behind him.

But even as they got inside neither the man or the teen said anything, so after looking at the boy for a few minutes, Gilbert decided that it was most likely best, that he was the one to begin this conversation.

"You seem to have a awful lot on your mind Athrun, mind sharing some of it with me?" He asked in a kind tone, while he walked over to a small refrigerator that was in the room.

Where he hurried pulled out a bottle of water for himself and a soda for the boy, that by now, was sitting on the couch he had in there.

And just one look at the teens thoughtful face, was enough to tell Gilbert, he was right when he assumed that the boy had many things going through his head at the moment.

It however only take a few seconds, before the boy let out a small breath, as he reached out and grabbed on to the can of soda, the Chairman had placed in front of him not long ago.

"I don't even know where to start, but I guess the thing I'm most concerned about, is what Zaft are going to do now, that the Earth Forces have been using nuclear missiles?" Athrun asked, while opening the soda can, without taking his eyes away from the Chairman.

Hearing the boy asked that Gilbert gave him a small smile. "We are not going to do anything Athrun, I know many of the citizens wants to do something in revenge, but doing such a thing wouldn't lead to anything good. It's not like any of us really wants a war, so once things calms down a bit, I'm sure they will all agree with me. And I'm sure that once she talks to them, some of the panic out there will simmer down" the man explained, while taking a small glance down at his watch.

Seeing just how close they where to Meer's debut as Lacus Clyne.

The black hair man, couldn't help but let a small grin ran over his lips, he truly was looking forward with great expectation, to see how his version of the pink hair celebrity, would handle this kind of situation.

It wasn't like Meer Campbell had all that much experience in being on live TV, so it would certainly be entertaining to see her performance, not that he expected her to do anything wrong.

She had after all been thoroughly trained, in being the real Lacus.

So unless she did something totally stupid, nobody out there would be able to tell, that she was not the real Lacus Clyne. And even if somebody could tell it was a fake, it wouldn't really hurt his plans, as long as she could calm the citizens down.

Thinking a bit about the Chairman's words Athrun took a big sip of the soda, truly enjoying the taste of the liquid as it slowly ran down his throat, after that he once again placed the can on the table.

"Ok I'm relieved to hear that, but what if they come back and try one more time? Soon or later one of the missiles will surely hit one of the Plants" the blue hair boy said in a worried tone, while thinking about how awful that would be, if something like that happened.

"You don't have to be concerned Athrun, we might not use the same methods, as we did when you where a Zaft soldier, but even with that said, we will not just sit by up here and do nothing, we are going to defend our self, that is after all human nature. But we will not go as far as we did in the last war, seeing as I do believe that both the Coordinators and Naturals is needed in this world, each of us just have to find someway to accept that" Gilbert said in a thoughtful tone, while glancing over at the boy, where he could easily tell that he was really considering his words.

And finally after a few seconds he nodded slowly in agreement. "I see, but do you have any ideas about how to stop the war, I really don't want a repeat of the last one I almost killed my best friend back there, and there was so many other things back then, that I truly wish I could have been different!" Athrun said in a loud tone.

While thinking back to many of the things, he had done in the last war and the people he truly wish was still among them.

But as he thinking about that, he didn't even noticed the few tears, that was now slowly running down his face.

Seeing that and hearing the boys words Gilbert couldn't help but smile a bit, this entire meeting with the young Zala was going just the way he want it, just a few more kind words, and he would have a truly unique pilot in his grasp.

"I am doing everything I can Athrun, to prevent this conflict from escalating any further then it already has. But as you properly already know, there is a limit to what even I can achieve" Gilbert said, while looking over at Athrun to make sure that he had all of the boy's attention.

And once he saw him give a small nod to his words, Gilbert quickly continued his manipulated speech.

"There isn't anybody in this world, that can prevent a war from breaking out on his own, each of us needs to use all of our abilities to help out. And if you truly wish to assist us Athrun, in making this world a peaceful place again, then you are more then welcome to once more join Zaft" the man said, with a kind smile on his face.

Hearing the Chairman ask him that, Athrun immediately got a somewhat shocked expression on his face.

He had never once expected, that when he left home to have this meeting with the Chairman, that the black haired man would ask him to rejoin Zaft again, and seeing as it was quite a surprise for him, he truly didn't know what to say.

"Well....I'm honoured that you would ask me, but I really don't know, I mean Orb might join with the Earth F...." that was all he got out, as the picture of how he had propose to Cagalli ran slowly through his mind.

It was just about that time when Gilbert stood up and walked over next to the boy and placed his hand on his shoulder. "I'm not asking you to betray Orb or any of your friends Athrun, I just want to know if you might be interested in being with Zaft again. But you surely don't have to make that decision now. But no matter what you decided on, there is something I would like very much to show you, once you are finished with your drink, and miss Lacus have had her broadcast!" Gilbert said while giving the boy a friendly smile, before he again walked over and sat down in his chair.

Thinking a bit about the man's words, the blue hair teenager was just about to say something back when he noticed the Chairman turn on the giant television that was in the room, where both of them could now see the Lacus lookalike girl.

Athrun had met not long ago, and it only took a small second before she began talking to pretty much everybody out there, still using Lacus voice.

But even true Athrun really was listening to what the Lacus lookalike was saying.

He was still looking over at the Chairman with a questionable expression on his face.

As he wait for the man to explain this to him, and fortunately he did not have to wait all that long before the Durandal looked away from the screen and over at him, where he of course could quite easily tell what the boy, wanted to know now.

"I realize what you are thinking Athrun, but I truly didn't have any other choice, her influence on people is just so much bigger then my own, and now that the real one have disappeared, I had to do something to make sure that everybody believed that Lacus Clyne was once again a supporting Zaft!" Gilbert said, not seeing the look the young Zala now had on his face.

Athrun truly did understand this from the Chairman point of view, but he just couldn't help but wonder what kind of reaction the real Lacus and Kira was going to have to all of this.

He could clearly remember a conversation he had overheard between the married couple, shortly the after the last war had ended, where Kira had asked Lacus if she sometime missed, being up on stage and singing her songs.

But Lacus had just smiled a bit at him, and told Kira that she much rather live a quiet and peaceful life together with the one she loved, and that she truly had loved being a pop star.

But she kinda felt like it was more important helping out with all the parentless children at reverend Malchio's house, and that was something she want to do, as long as she was able to.

So was it really right for the Chairman, to make Lacus a celebrity again, now that she didn't want to be one.

It did however only take a few minutes before Athrun's expression changed to a more determined one. If this really was the only way, to get some of the people out there to stop thinking about revenge, then the real Lacus just had to accept that.

And with that in mind, Athrun slowly lifted his head and looked over at the pink hair girl on the screen.

Just as she began singing a totally different version, of Lacus' favorite song, and even true Athrun honestly prefer the original, the way this girl was singing it, wasn't really all that bad.

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It was about a half hour since Meer had her first live debut, and even true she had been jumping and dancing around a lot more eagerly, then the real Lacus would ever do, she really had done an unbelievable job.

Even true it had been somewhat obvious, that the whole experience had been quite exciting for the young woman.

And as much as Athrun, wanted to figure out a bit more about just who she was, there really hadn't been any time for that.

But he did not get all that much time to really think about that when the Chairman suddenly turned and looked back at him.

"Here we are Athrun the thing I want to show you is right in here" the man said, while he dialed in the code that would unlock the door, once that was done he smiled a bit at Athrun, before he reached out and pressed the big button that would open the door.

After that it did not take long, before the two of them where in an almost completely dark room.

"I know that you haven't made up your mind yet about what you are going to do Athrun, but even if you don't know that, I would like to know your opinion on this machine?" Gilbert said.

Just as all the lights in the room was turned on, which meant that now they could both see, the mobile suit that was standing in there.

"But that's a gundam!" Athrun called out in a truly surprised tone, as he stood there looking the strange mobile suit over, while wondering what it could do and what name it had, but before he could even ask the Chairman about it.

The black haired man began talking in a proud tone. "To be more precise, this mobile suit is the ZGMF-X23S Saviour" Gilbert explained, while looking away from the boy and over at the gundam, thinking slightly about what the young man could achieve in a mobile suit as strong as the Saviour.

His performs in that ZAKU, they had let him borrow at Junius Seven, had truly been magnificent, and Gilbert was really looking forward, with great expectations to see what the boy could do in this mobile suit.

And with that in mind, he again looked back at Athrun.

"It's a bit different, then the three stolen once, and the Impulse, but nevertheless I'm certain that if it gets just the right pilot, it could be a great help to put an end to all of this" the Chairman said, finally looking away from the gundam and back at him.

"Why are you showing me this sir?" Athrun asked, with a bit of an confused look on his face.

He really did think that the Saviour, was an impressive looking mobile suit.

But he just didn't get, why the Chairman was showing him something, that no doubt was top military secret, and not something an outsider such as himself, should be permitted to see, but yet here he was seeing one of Zafts news mobile suits.

Hearing the boys question Gilbert smiled, as he looked at the gundam.

"The main reason why I'm showing you this Athrun, is actually because I was truly wondering, if I where to give you this machine, what you would use it for?" The black haired man asked, truly enjoying the shocked looked, the boy was sending him.

Not that he didn't understand why, the boy was so surprised.

It wasn't like it was an every day occurrence, that somebody would just give away something as powerful as a gundam.

Blinking a few times at what the man's had just asked him, Athrun had a real difficult time coming up with some kind of reply to the question. So in the end he just stood there, for a few very long minutes looking at the gundam.

"I actually don't know, but one thing is certain I will do everything I possible can to stop this conflict. That way none of the people that I love and care about wouldn't have to get involved, in something like this again" Athrun said, in a somewhat far away tone, while thinking about everybody he had left behind back home, especially the girl he loved, occupied his mind for a few minutes.

But it did not take long, before he began to wonder what all of them where doing, at this very moment.

He truly did hope that all of them where ok down there, and that they did not miss him too much.

Unfortunately his wandering thoughts, about the all the people in his life was soon interrupted, when the Chairman began talking to him, still using the same calm tone as before.

"I see Athrun, but if you really do decide to join up with us once again, this mobile suit and all the power it has will be yours to do with as you wish. The Saviour will be your responsibility, so think about what you want to do and give me a reply, when you have made up your mind!" The black haired man said, as he turned away and began making his way towards the exit of the hangar.

Still taking the opportunity, to take a small glance back at the former Le Creuset team member.

Where he was quick to noticed, that he had obviously given the young man a lot to think about, something which was more then enough, to make a small smile ran over his lips, as he once more called out to him.

"Well if you are finished looking at the Saviour Athrun, I think it's about time that we fine you a place to stay while you are up here!"

Hearing that Athrun took one last look up in the gundams eyes, then slowly turned away and began walking over towards the Chairman, that by now was standing over by the door waiting for him.

And it was not long after the two of them had left, that the Saviour was once again locked securely back in it's almost completely dark hangar.

With a few more guards keeping watch over the place, to make extra sure that nobody would try and take this machine, like somebody had done with the Chaos, Gaia and Abyss.

But even as Athrun and the Chairman was walking together down the hall.

Nothing else was said between them, even true Gilbert was quite certain that it would only be a matter of time now, before Athrun Zala would once more be a loyal Zaft soldier.

To be continued.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

It was about three days after Athrun had left.

And even true Cagalli did miss him, she did not really get all that much time to think about him. Seeing as she was forced to listen to Yuna, Unato and most of the other politician blabber about, just how good an opportunity it was, for Orb to join up with the Earth Forces.

But truth be told Cagalli was getting quite tired of listening to them, they had almost been talking for two straight hours now, and that was more then enough to drive even the most normal person insane.

And Cagalli was just about ready to scream at the top of her lungs.

Especially when she heard Yuna, talk about how much they would gain by join the Earth Forces.

But that was also all he got out before Cagalli interrupted. "I just don't see why all of you are so eager to join them, have all of you already forgotten what they did to us in the past, just try and think about how many of our citizens they end up killing in their attack" The blond girl said, not doing a single thing to hid, the glare she was sending Yuna right now.

But even with her hateful look turned at him Yuna just smiled a bit at her, as he began talking to her in a friendly tone.

"We all do remember what they did Cagalli. But that's in the past, as I'm sure you know, we have to think about the future, and what will be best for Orb, we can't be the only nation on earth, that wouldn't join the once that is trying to protected us from Zaft" the purple haired man said, still keeping that damn annoying grin on his face.

Hearing him say all of that and seeing his smug expression, was almost enough to make Cagalli jump full speed over the table and beat the crap out of the brain dead moron.

But fortunately she restrain from doing just that. If she really did follow through on those emotions that told her to do that, she was certain that she would lose the rest of the support, she had from the other politicians.

"Zaft is no threat to us or anybody else down here, they don't want another war, the only thing they want is to live in peace, just like the rest of us!" Cagalli said in a loud tone.

While once again wondering just how in the Devil's name the entire Seiran family could be so damn arrogant and irritating, why did they have to be like this? Why the heck was it necessary for Orb to get involved.

It was so much better that they just remain neutral, like they had done in the last war, what in the world was it, that made Yuna and Unato insisted so hard on joining up with the Earth Forces.

Unfortunately she did not get all that much time to really think about that, before Unato cut of her thoughts.

"That's not how I and most of the world see it Cagalli, and you should know why, you where after all present when they did that terrible thing at Junius Seven, do you have any idea how many people down here would have been killed, if they really had succeed in dropping the colony?" The man asked, as he sat there looking directly over at the blond girl, trying to figure out what she was going to say now.

And he didn't have to wait for long, before she turned her attention away from Yuna and over at him.

"Zaft had nothing to do with those guys who tried to drop the colony. They really did everything they possible could, to prevent those guys from carrying out their plan, we should be grateful to them, instead joining up with those people that only bears a grudges against them because they are Coordinators" The girl said in a hard tone, not once taking her eyes away from Unato.

"And you all know as well as I do, that Orb has never hate Coordinators in the past, so why do we need to start now?" The blond girl asked, slowly letting her eyes ran over the other politicians in there.

But one small look at their face was more then enough for her to tell, that most of them didn't agree with what she had just said.

Something that actually made her curses them slightly in her mind, as she wonder how much sucking up the Seiran's had done, to make most of them to take their side in this.

"Cagalli it's not that we hate Coordinators, we just need to do what is best for Orb, and all of us here agrees that we will be more safe if we and the Earth Forces stood together, if Zaft should try something" Yuna said, while giving her that caring smile.

Which Cagalli could honestly tell, she hated with a passion if anybody ever asked her.

But after doing a small shook with her head, to get her mind away from Yuna's dumb look she again began talking.

"I don't believe for a second that Zaft will do anything, they just want to defend them self, and who the hell can blame them, when the Earth Forces attacks with nuclear missiles just a few days after they declared war. And please explain to me why the heck, all of you are so damn keen on working together with somebody that does something that crazy!" Cagalli said, doing everything to show the two Seiran's that she was not going to change her opinion about this.

It was just about that time that, Yuna stood up and walked over behind her, where he placed both of his hands on her shoulders.

"The reason we need to join them is simply because if Zaft create something like GENESIS again, we need to be able to protect our self from them and the best way for us to do that, will be by fighting together with the Earth Alliance" Yuna said, not noticing how uncomfortable he was making Cagalli right now.

If anybody where to take a good look at her face, they would easily be able to tell, that she truly disliked having Yuna massage her shoulders like this.

Unfortunately much to her big irritation she couldn't really do anything about it right now.

So after giving her lower lips a small yet hard bite she once again tried to make the other politicians in there see the wisdom in what she was saying.

"I don't believe Zaft would do something like that, Chairman Durandal truly does seem to be a wise man, who wish for nothing else then peace for the entire world!"

Cagalli said while taking a short glance back at Yuna, truly hoping he wouldn't continue rubbing her shoulders like this for much longer now.

It seriously was getting on her nerves having a person she hated so much, doing something like this for her, the only person in her mind that had permission to massage her shoulders was the one she loved, and he wasn't there.

"And I don't believe Orb can afford to take that risk miss Cagalli, there really isn't anyway you can know what the Chairman and the Plants are planing even as we speak, and that could in my eyes get us in serious trouble" Unato said, while smiling a bit at the blond hair girl. Not even noticing how pissed off she was getting, he just continued talking like everything was just dandy.

"Which is the reason why, I think it would be best of we where allied with somebody, and it truly does seems like joining the Earth Forces would befit us the most, don't the rest of you agree?" The man asked, taking a small look around at everybody else there, where saw most of them nod yes to his words.

Something that was more then enough to make a small satisfied smile, ran over his lips. Seeing that all of them where agreeing with Unato on this, the blond teenager almost cursed the two Seiran's out loud.

She knew that there was no way she could win this discussion now, that all of the other politicians was ready to do what Yuna and Unato was suggesting.

But that however didn't mean she was going to let Unato have the last words, so after shaking away Yuna's damn hands.

She stood up and looked over all of them. "Ok if you all feel like that, I guess we got no other options then to join the oh SO great and powerful Earth Forces, but I seriously hope that this wouldn't somehow come back and bite us in the ass, now if you will excuse me I have other things to do!" Cagalli said.

Just as she turned around, and left the room before anybody there could say anything else to her, that would only serve to make her even more angry.

But even as she was walking down the halls, she couldn't help but wonder, just how disappointed her father would be right now.

"I'm so sorry that I couldn't stop them father!" The girl said quietly to herself, while squeezing together both of her fists tightly, making her nails dig in to the soft skin that she had on both of her hands.

But even as she was doing that, a few tears slowly left both her eyes and ran down her cheeks.

Luckily she was in such a big hurry, that none of the people she pasted, noticed that she was actually crying.

It did however not take all that long before she arrived at her office, where she immediately slammed the door opened and went inside, where the first thing she saw, was a beautiful vase, filled with roses standing on her table.

Thinking a few seconds about who could have send her something like that, she stormed over and picked up the card, that was laying beside the flowers.

And it was only a short moment later before her hand flew out and grabbed on to the vase, where she hurry pulled back and throw the object full speed in to nears wall, destroying the vase completely.

"Damn you Yuna and you too Unato!" She muttered to herself in a angry tone, while looking around the room for anything else, her so call fiancée had left for her.

But much to her small irritation there wasn't anything else in the room, she wanted to take her anger out on.

So after standing there for a few minutes, making sure that her office was somewhat Seiran free, she walked over and sat down in her chair, thinking hard about what she should do now.

It was most likely a good idea to tell the married couple and the rest of the Archangel's crew about this. For some reason, she could not help but feel like, it wouldn't be long now, before there once again was a need for the white space ship.

And with that in mind, she stood up and quickly left her offices again.

She truly didn't feel like talking with anybody at this moment especially Yuna. If he did show up now, she was certain she would give him almost the same treatment as the vase she had just destroyed.

And even true she would honestly would love to give the purple haired fool a black eye or two, she knew deep inside that it was a bad idea.

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It was about an hour later when Cagalli arrived at her destination.

But even true she knew what she had to tell the people inside the house.

It took her about ten long minutes, before she left the car and began walking slowly towards the building. Not caring at all about the heavy rain that was falling on her from above, the only thing she had on her mind at the moment, was how they all where going to react, when she explained to them, that Orb was going to do join up with the Earth Forces.

She just hoped that they wouldn't tell her that they had to leave now, she really didn't want for Lacus and Kira to move away from earth and back to the Plants, they where after all the only family she had left.

And if they where to leave, the blond haired woman realized that it would be almost impossible for her to ever see them, which wasn't something she wanted.

Kira was after all her brother and Lacus was one of her best friends other then Miriallia, but she would most likely also leave if Dearka was heading back home to the Plants, she was after all in-love with the former Zaft pilot.

"DAMN YOU TO HELL YUNA!" She yelled finally giving in to those feelings that want for her to just scream how much she hated that fool of a Seiran.

But after she did that, it didn't take long before the door to the house flew open and she saw Dearka stick his head outside, where he took a quick look around until his eyes landed on her.

"Hey girl! What are you standing around out here for?" He asked sounding a bit puzzled, with everything that was going on right now, he did not understand how, the blond haired girl, had the time to be out there.

It did however not take him long, before he noticed the truly depressed expression she had on her face.

Seeing that he hurried stepped out in to the rain and took a hold on her hand, and began pulling her with him towards the house.

It did not really take that big a genius to see, that if he didn't take her inside, she would just kept standing around out there in the rain, with that completely crushed look on her face.

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At the same time inside the house, to be more exact in the living room, the rest of the inhabits of the house was busy relaxing Kira was playing video games against Mayu and Andrew Waltfeld, while Lacus was messing around with Haro, and Murrue was reading in a book.

Truth be told, everything was just so nice and peaceful, something all of them could not help but enjoy.

But the up until now quiet day was quickly brought to a hold when Dearka enter the living room escorting a sad looking Cagalli.

Seeing the sad look on his sister's face Kira didn't waste anytime in jumping up from the floor and move over in front of his sister. "Cagalli, what in the world are you doing here, I thought you had that important meeting today!" Kira said, while looking directly in to her two sad eyes.

Hearing him say that, Cagalli slowly moved her eyes away from the floor and looked up her brother.

"I did Kira, it ended not that long ago. And not the way I want it, for some reason the Seiran's and everybody else there, thinks it's for the best if Orb joins up with the Earth Forces, and fight together with them against Zaft!" Cagalli said, while a few more tears ran down her face, and she let out a light sob.

"You can't be serious girl? I knew that the Seiran's was a bunch of morons, but I didn't think it was that bad!" Dearka complained in a truly angry tone, from where he was sanding behind the blond girl.

It might have been along time since he had left Zaft, to live down here together with Miriallia. That however did not mean, he had to like the idea of the Earth Forces and Orb combining their forces against Zaft.

Dearka however wasn't the only one shocked about hearing what Cagalli had just told them.

Pretty much everybody there had a somewhat far away look in their eyes, as they all stood there trying their best, to find at least a little sanity and reason to why, the Seirans was so eager, to have Orb help out the people that invaded them two years ago.

And it took about five whole minutes, before Lacus stepped over and pulled her sister-in-law in to a small hug.

"I'm deeply sorry to hear that Cagalli, but will you please stop blaming yourself, believe me when I say that this is not your fault. I know for certain you did everything you could to prevent Orb from joining up with them. Each of us here understands that, and I'm quiet certain that your father would have understood too!" Lacus said, while slowly running her hands up and down Cagalli's back, doing her best to try and calm the other girl down.

Hearing his wife say that, was enough to get Kira's mind away from the two Seirans, and over at the person that could no doubt use some comfort right now.

It was after all clear for each of them, that the reason Cagalli had taken the time to come all the way out there, was because she was depressed about what Orb was going to do.

"Lacus' right sis, there is no way this can be your fault, we all realize just how hard you have been working the last few days, to make sure that Orb stays neutral" Kira said in a somewhat far away tone, while trying a bit to figure out how this would effect Lacus' and his life there, with most of the world hating Coordinators, it might soon be impossible for them to keep living there.

He did however not think about that for long, before it was his turn to give his sister a hug.

"So what do you think I should do now Kira. I don't really want to go home, I'm certain that damn moron is there, waiting to try and comfort me!" Cagalli said in a slightly bitter tone.

Not really finding the need to mention, who exactly she was talking about, not that the others didn't already knew.

Now however it was Mayu's turn, to put in her two cents about the subject. "I don't get why you don't just kick his ass, big sis Cagalli, he is such a weakling that even I could beat him up, with no trouble at ALL!" The smallest woman there said in tone, that made it a completely obvious that she was serious about everything she had just said.

She was actually so far away in her thoughts about beating up Yuna, that she did not noticed that everybody else there, was looking at her with a sceptical look on their faces.

And it was only when Murrue gave her daughter a light tap at the back of her head, that the girl snapped back out of her somewhat violent thoughts.

"Where do you get those ideas that everything can be handle with violence?" The woman asked, while looking straight in to Mayu's eyes, but much to Murrue's slight disappointment, her daughter was way to smart to give her an honest answer to that question.

"I see it all the time, on those children programs they show in the morning!" The girl explained loudly, doing her best to look as innocent as she possible could.

That however did not fool Murrue for even a second.

She already knew that there was no way Mayu was going to tell her, where she had really picked it up from. But if Murrue had to guess, she was almost certain that Mayu had heard it from one of those crazy movies, she was always watching together with Dearka.

That however was not something Murrue was happy about, but she knew that now was not the best time, to try and talk Mayu out of watching those kind of films.

She had already done that more then a few times in the past, but no matter how many times they would have that discussion, Mayu would always find someway to join Dearka in the living room, every time there was a good thriller on the TV.

"Yeah right, like I'm going to believe that young lady, but now is not the right time, we can always talk about that later" Murrue said, while looking over at Cagalli that by now was sitting on the couch, between the married couple.

Just one single look at the blond haired girl, was all that Murrue need to tell that she was almost completely exhausted. Both of her eyes had a somewhat red colour in them, and it was obvious that she was having a hard time, keeping them open.

It really did seem like she was ready to sleep just about anywhere, and just the sight of her like this was more then enough to make Murrue feel a bit sorry for the young woman.

Murrue had always thought, Cagalli had a very hard job for someone her age, and with everything that was going on in the world right now, it had to be almost twice as hard as normal.

But just as Murrue was about to say that the girl could spend the night there, someone else beat her to it.

"Well princess I really don't think it's a good idea to let you go back home on your own, so why don't you take the guests room tonight, it's obvious that you are just about ready to collapse!" Andrew said, from where he was standing over by the window.

The rain that had been coming down when the girl had arrived was now coming down twice as hard, and he could see a few flashes of lightning in the distance.

It didn't take a weather broadcast to tell, that things out there, was getting bad very quickly, the wind was speeding up, and it was clear that it wouldn't be long now, before a really bad storm would be over them.

And there was just no way, he would let Cagalli drive home in this kind of weather.

Hearing the man said that Cagalli couldn't help but give him a small yet grateful smile. "Thank you Waltfeld, so if none of you mind, I really don't feel like talking right now so if it's all right with you, I think it would be best that I go to bed immediately!" the blond girl said, as she stood up and began walking towards the direction of the guests room.

Seeing as she had already visited them more then a few times in the past, she of course had no trouble, at all locating the room.

Seeing her leave in that tired fashion Lacus too stood up from the couch and walked over to the phone.

"Now that Cagalli is going to spend the night out here, I do believe it would be for the best to call miss Myrna and tell her that Cagalli is here with us, that way she wouldn't have to worry about her!" Lacus said.

Just before she picked up the devices and began dialing in the number of the Myrna's mobile phone, and it had only been ringing a few times before she heard the voice of the woman at the other end of the line.

"Hello miss Myrna this is Lacus, I just want to tell you that Cagalli is out here" Lacus said in her usual kind voice, even true deep inside, she was just as sad about all of this, as the rest of them.

But she really didn't want to make Myrna more worried then she most likely already was. And even as she stood there with the phone it took a little time before she heard the woman asked, how lady Cagalli really was feeling.

Hearing Myrna ask that Lacus couldn't help but let out a small breath, as she took a glance over at Birdy that was sitting on her right shoulder, think about if it really was a good idea, to tell Myrna how depressed Cagalli had been when she arrived there.

But when Myrna asked her to please tell her the truth, Lacus looked away from her husband's robot bird and down at the phone.

"She was completely crushed, it's been a very long time since I have seen her this sad!" Lacus said.

Just as she felt Kira take a hold on her hand and give it a small squeeze, that she immediately returned with one of her own, as she listened to Myrna ask her if they would please look after Cagalli tonight, and that she would come out there to get her in the morning if it was necessary.

That however made Lacus drop Kira's hand as she tighten her grib on the phone. "I don't think it's that bad miss Myrna, I'm sure she will be feeling much better after getting some rest, it's obvious that she haven't been sleeping much the last few days" Lacus explained, as she heard the woman tell her that if anything else was wrong they better call her immediately.

Hearing the older woman demand that Lacus felt a small smile ran over her lips, as she immediately promised Myrna that they would call her if anything else should happen.

After that it did not take long before the conversation was over, and the pink hair girl slowly placed the phone back on it's right full place.

"So what do we do now?!" Lacus asked, as she turned around and looked back at the others, where she was quick to realize ,that they where all looking at her right now.

"Aunty Myrna, sound pretty worried about big sis Cagalli" Mayu said in a small tone, from where she was sitting beside Murrue, with a somewhat far away look on her face.

It was obvious that the youngest female there, had just as much on her mind, as the rest of the household. It was however only when, Lacus sat down in the only empty chair, that was left that the silence was brought to a hold.

"I don't really think there is much we can do right now, we just have to wait and see what else is going to happen. It's not like we can do anything about Orb joining the Earth Forces, and even true I would honestly like to do what Mayu suggested and kick Yuna's ass, this is not the right time. If we start something now, it could end very badly, so lets wait and see how Zaft will response to this!" Andy said, as he picked up his mug.

Where he hurried swallowed the rest of the liquid inside, even true it had gone cold a long time ago.

But he frankly didn't care much about that at the moment.

He had way to many things on his mind, to really worry about how bad the coffee tasted, and it was first after he placed his mug back on the table that one of the others cut in.

"Ok I get what you are saying Waltfeld, but I don't like this at all!" Dearka said in a somewhat unhappy tone.

As he tried a bit to figure out what Zaft was going to do, but seeing as his knowledge about Chairman Durandal was limited, it was kinda hard for him to guess what exactly the man was planing, now that Orb was fighting along side the Earth Forces.

It was about that time that Kira interrupted his. "None of us like this Dearka, but I think Mr Waltfeld is right, the only thing we can do is wait and see what the Plants are going to do" the brown hair man said.

As he thought back to some of the more awful things, he had done two years ago in the last war, he might not think about it that often anymore.

But there was still a lot of things he was feeling guilty about, like killing one of Dearka's dear friends, and not being able to do a single thing to save Tolle or Asagi, both of them had after all gotten killed almost directly in front of him.

Seeing the depressed look that was on Kira's face, Lacus slowly reached out and gently placed her hand on his arm, making him move his attention away from the floor and over at her.

"What's wrong Kira?" She asked with a somewhat worried gaze in both of her eyes, that did decreased a tiny bit when Kira reached up and took her hold of her hand, then pulled her small embrace.

"It's nothing Lacus I was thinking about a few old friends!" The boy explained, while taking in the lovely scent of her long newly washed hair, wondering slightly what kind of shampoo she used to give it that nice scent.

He did however not get much time, to enjoy the smell before she slowly moved just a bit away from him looking straight in to his purple eyes, immediately noticing the bit of sadness that was still in them.

But she knew better then to ask one more time, Kira didn't really like talking about the last war in front of everybody else.

Especially if miss Murrue was present, for whenever they where talking about what happened two years ago, the chance of Mu getting mentioned was pretty high.

And both she and Kira knew how depressed the former captain of the Archangel had been, when the blond man had died, and none of them liked the idea of making the brown haired woman sad.

Unfortunately she did not get much time to think about that, when suddenly a big sound of thunder could be heard almost straight above the house.

And it was only a short second later, before a big bolted of lightning could be seen a short distance away from the house. And it was at that exact moment that every single electrical device in there stopped doing their job.

Seeing that happening, Dearka was quick to yell out a few curses.

"Ahhhh damn it! That's just perfect!" The boy said, with a great deal of sarcasm in his voice, as he began walking over towards a drawer that was suppose to be at the end of the living room.

It was a bit hard to get over there in the darkness that was surrounding all of them, but when he finally found his way over there, he hurried pull out a small flashlight from drawer number two.

And it was only a brief moment later, before he turned it on, and looked back at the others, asking them what they where suppose to do now that the power was gone.

Thinking a bit about what Dearka was asking them, Lacus was the first one to reply.

"I for one think we should follow Cagalli's good example and get to bed early, we all do have a lot to talk about, with everything that is happening, but I'm sure that you guys agree with me, that it's kinda hard to have such a serious conversation without being able to see each other" Lacus said, as she reached down and picked up Haro from the floor, so nobody would accidently step on him.

Hearing her big sister figure, suggest what they could do, Mayu was just about to complain that doing something like that was boring, and that she want to do something fun.

But before the brown haired girl could even get her mouth open, there was another exploding sound and bright flash of lightning outside.

It took almost five whole seconds before the sound of the thunder once again disappeared, and the only thing all of them could hear now, was the rain hitting the roof of the house quite hard.

But they didn't get to listen to that for long, before Mayu began talking in a loud tone. "Ok let's go to bed everybody, good-night!" She called out to them, just before she ran of down the hall, heading straight for her mother's room, instead of her own.

Seeing Mayu disappear like that, Kira felt a small smile ran over his lips. "I just can't help but think Mayu is a bit strange from time to time, she is not afraid watching horror movies, but she is afraid of lightning" the teenager said in a wondering tone, while thinking about how quick Mayu had left the living room, after the last flash of lightning.

It was about that time Murrue stepped over next to him and Lacus, where she gave each of them a friendly smile.

"Yeah I noticed that too Kira, but I guess that's just the way she is. Now then I better hurry up and get going before she comes back here to look for me, so good-night everybody!" The brown haired woman said, as she walked off to search for her daughter.

And it wasn't long after that before the rest of the people in the living room was heading of to bed too, still with the gigantic storm making a terrible noise outside the house.

000000

It did not take much time before Murrue arrived at her room, where the first thing she noticed was Mayu sitting on her bed, already dressed in her favorite pyjamas.

Seeing that Murrue smiled a bit as she walked over and sat down next to the girl.

"I don't think you have to worry that much Mayu, the power might be out, but this house is perfectly safe from thunder" the woman said, as she reached out and took her step-daughter's hand, which she immediately gave a small squeeze.

Feeling that Mayu looked up at her mother and smiled a bit back.

"I know that mom, but I just don't like it, it makes me feel nervous for some reason, so can I stay in here tonight?" She asked, while doing her very best to make sure that Murrue, could see her puppy dog eyes even with the entire room covered in darkness.

It really did seem like the power was going to be out for the rest of the night.

But even true Murrue couldn't really see her daughter face all that well, she already knew what kind of expression she had on it, something that was enough to make her let out a light chuckle, while she gave Mayu the answer to her question.

"Of course you can stay in here, as long as you behave, I already know how restless and destructive you can be when you can't sleep" Murrue said in a teasing tone, while she moved the cover away from the bed and got ready to get in.

Hearing her mother say that Mayu immediately got a small unhappy frown on her forehead.

"Ok so I destroyed an alarm clock that one time, but that damn thing was preventing me from falling asleep!" The eleven-year-old girl said, thinking back to how she had destroyed the very first birthday gift, Dearka had ever given to her.

And even true she had honestly felt really guilty about doing such a thing. Dearka had just laughed at her and told her that it was all right.

Now that she was really thinking about it, the whole house had actually been laughing at her.

Which wasn't really something she had been overly happy about. Even now they would sometimes tease her, about how angry she could get, if she was unable to fall asleep.

"Ok mom I promise you that I wouldn't destroy anything in here if I can't sleep, now can I please get under the cover, just so you know your daughter is freezing a lot right now!" Mayu said.

Just as she saw her mother lifted up the cover, so she could get in beside her, truly happy to see that, it did not take her long, before she was completely comfortable beside the woman, who had taken her in two years ago.

She did however not get much time to enjoy it before they yet again heard a big exploding sound from outside.

Which made Mayu snuggle a bit closer to Murrue.

Truly happy to know that her mother was beside her at a time like this. It did however not even take a minute, before pretty much the entire house, was lighted up by yet another, almost blinding flash of lightning.

Fortunately it did not take much time, before the room was once again covered in darkness.

"Damn somebody up there is really pissed of right now" Mayu said, while looking up at the ceiling, wondering a bit what God it was that was making this kind of uproar.

Yet now that she was giving it some thought, she realized that she only knew that names of two thunder Gods, Thor and Zeus, but before she could try and figure out who of them, where on a rampages.

The inhabits of the house, heard and even bigger thunderclap then any of the previous once, and the lightning flashed that followed was also much brighter.

But before Mayu could try and move even close to the person beside her, she felt her mother put her arms around her and hug her softly.

"You really don't have to be so scared Mayu, I'm sure that it wouldn't be long now before it's over!" Murrue said in a calm tone, doing her best to calm the brown haired girl down.

Hearing that Mayu nodded a single time, as she slowly began drifting of to sleep, now feeling completely safe and protected in her mother's arms, even with the giant storm continuing outside.

And it did not take very long before she was far away in dreamland, not hearing any more of the thunderclaps that night.

But even as she was laying there sleeping, Murrue couldn't help but study her for a bit.

She really was delighted that she had decided to adopted the brown hair girl.

She had help her a lot without even knowing it, if Murrue didn't have her to look after, she knew that she would most likely still be mourning over Mu's death.

Even true she still was feeling depressed over that from time to time, but it just wasn't as unbearable any longer as it had been. And that was surely because of her little girl, and the rest of the people in the house.

Each of them had really done their best to help her back then, something she knew deep inside, that she was truly grateful for.

But in the end it had been Mayu who deserved most of the credit for getting most of her spirit back. So after laying there looking at the girl a bit longer, Murrue reached up and gently ran her hand through her daughter's hair.

"Sleep tight Mayu, I'll will see you tomorrow" Murrue whispered to her in a quiet voice, while her eyes slowly drifted shut as she too began falling asleep, still having that small smile on her face, and with Mayu resting peacefully in her arms.

000000

Meanwhile some place else in the small country, or to be more accurate on the Minerva.

Nicol was slowly walking down the ships halls, heading towards the mess hall, his stomach growling loudly in hunger.

He had been so busy rewriting his mobile suit OS, that when the night began approaching his stomach had quickly reminded him that he hadn't gotten a single thing to eat since breakfast, that however did not stop him from continuing his work on his GOUF.

Now that the Minerva was down in the earth's atmosphere, he just want to make extra sure that everything on the yellow machine function as it should.

Up until now the GOUF had been programmed in such a way, that in Nicol's eyes it was almost perfect for space combat, but that of course would surely not be able to work down here.

Which meant that the GOUF had to have it's OS completely change, and doing such a task was something that no doubt took a lot of time, even as he had left his mobile suit, he wasn't satisfied with how the OS was now, it still need a bit more work.

But it was getting kinda hard to concentrate with his stomach screaming for him to get some food.

So much to his small irritation he had left the GOUF to find something to eat, and just like the rest of the crew he knew that finding food was done in the mess hall.

That however didn't not mean he was happy leaving his work half done, he really did want the OS to function properly, before he would head of to bed. Fortunately there wasn't much for the ships pilots to do the next few days.

Seeing as the Minerva wasn't completely repaired yet, there was still a few minor things that need to be fixed, and that meant that Nicol could use the entire night to program the OS, just the way he want it.

Unfortunately he did not get much time to finish his plans about what else he need to do on the GOUF, when he suddenly heard two well-known quite loud voices coming from the mess hall.

It did not take much of a genius to figure out just who was down there. And once he turned around the corner he saw that he was right in his assumption, there was both Meyrin and Lunamaria busy eating their own dinner, while discoursing with each other how long the ship was going to be in Orb.

"Ok I really do think this place is great. But I frankly hope that it wouldn't be long now before we can leave, I'm seriously getting tired of how Shinn keeps sulking around, the way he has been acting the last few days is insufferable. I know he doesn't like being here, but the way he keeps growling at everybody is really getting old fast!" Luna said, as she took a bite of the food that was standing in front of her.

Hearing her sister say that Meyrin got a somewhat thoughtful look on her face, as she sat there thinking about what her sister had just said, but she did not do that for long, before she opened her mouth and began telling Luna her opinion on the subject.

"I do get what you are saying sis, I too thinks he has been even more short temper then usual. But I also kinda understand why he is like this, he did after all lost his family here, so it isn't really a big surprise that he kepts being angry!" The youngish of the two red haired girls said, as she used her two chopsticks to play a bit with the food, that was laying on her plate.

Thinking a bit about her little sister's words, Luna finally let out a small sigh.

"Ok I guess you are right Meyrin, we can't really blame him for being upset. But that does not mean, that it is not annoying seeing him walk around with that angry frown on his face!" Luna said, while watching how her sister, was moving her two chopsticks around, a part of her feeling a little jealous of how well Meyrin could use those things.

For some reason Lunamaria had never been able to learn how to really use chopsticks.

So instead she would always end up using a knife and a fork, to eat whatever food she was having. She did however not get long to admire her sister's abilities with the two pieces of wood, before a certain green haired boy dropped down beside her.

"Good evening you two!" He said, while giving each of them a friendly smile, which the two girls immediately returned.

Seeing as both of them liked talking and being around Nicol, he was always so nice and polite to everybody, not at all like that person they had been talking about before Nicol got there.

Shinn had after all proven the last few days that he could stay angry for a very long time, without even smiling once.

And even true both of them had agreed not to blame the Impulse piloted for his anger. The two girl just couldn't help but like it much better, talking with a person that was usually in a good mood.

But one single look at Nicol's expression, was enough to tell both of them that he was quite tired.

Seeing that both girl took a small glance over at each other, before they again looked back at him.

"What in the world have you been doing all day Nicol? I seriously don't think I have ever seen you look this exhausted before!" Meyrin said in a loud tone, that did nothing to hide how concerned she was, about her green hair friend, that clearly looked like he was just about ready to fall asleep there by the table.

Forcing back a yawn, Nicol looked over at Meyrin with a tired expression on his face.

"I was working on my GOUF most of the day, but it still isn't exactly how I want it. So after getting some food, I'm heading back to the hangar to fix up the rest" the green haired boy explained, while taking a big bite of his food, chewing it slowly a few times, before he finally swallowed it.

Hearing him say that, Luna couldn't help but blink a few times as she sat there watching him, with a somewhat sceptical look on her face.

She just couldn't believe, that he want to go back and work on his mobile suit, when he was this exhausted.

"Not that it's any of my business Nicol, but don't you think you could concentrate much better if you where not so tired? I for one would not work on my ZAKU if I was just about ready to collapse" the red hair girl said.

Seriously hoping that Nicol would realize, that it wasn't a good idea for him to continue with his work on his yellow machine, when he was in this worn out condition.

Quickly going over everything Luna had just said to him, the green haired boy soon had a far away look in his eyes, as he tried to make up his mind about, what he should be doing, after he had finished eating his dinner.

"I don't know Luna, I am tired but I don't like the idea of leaving my work half finished!" The boy said, while taking a small sip of his water.

Hearing those words leave his mouth Meyrin couldn't help but let out a few light chuckles.

"It's not like you are leaving it forever Nicol, you can continue it tomorrow after getting a good nights sleep!" The red hair girl said, while using her chopsticks to pick up the rest of her food, and placed it in her mouth, thinking about why the chef on the ship was making such a distasteful dish.

But one look over at Nicol was enough to tell her, that he actually liked the food he was eating right now.

So maybe it was because she was a bit picky with what kind of food she would eat.

Unfortunately she did not get the time to really think about that, before they heard Nicol let out a big sigh.

"Ok you two I guess you are right, I'll go take a shower after eating, then I will go to bed. I just hope that there wouldn't be a need for my mobile suit the next few days" the boy said, as he lifted his hand to cover up his mouth, just before he could yawn loudly in front of his two friends.

Truly happy to hear that, Luna smiled a bit at him. "I'm glad to hear that Nicol, we don't want you to get sick now because you don't get enough sleep" the red haired ZAKU pilot said.

Just as she stood up from her seat and walked over to get another can of orange juice. She did however not open it, she took it with her back to the table where she once again sat down beside Nicol.

Who by now was looking at the can with a slightly curious expression on his face. "What do you need that one for Luna?" He asked, while taking yet another bite of the delicious food on his dish, truly enjoying the taste of it before he slowly swallowed it.

Still trying to figure out what need the red hair girl had for an extra can of orange juice for.

Fortunately it didn't take long before Lunamaria put his curiosity to rest.

"Once I'm done with my dinner, I was planing to go back to my room and read for a hour or two, I bought a few new books while me and Meyrin was out looking around today!" Luna explained, while thinking about how much fun the two of them had been having today on their shopping trip.

They had left the ship almost immediately after, the shops in the small country had opened up.

And the sisters had actually been enjoying them self so much, that they had been gone for most of the day.

And it was only when they realized they had used up most of their salary, that they came to the agreement that it was about time they returned to the Minerva.

But it was only when they got back here, they estimate just how many hours the two of them had been walking around from store to store, buying whatever they wanted.

Nicol however couldn't help but smile a bit at what Luna had just told him. "I'm glad to know that the two of you have been having a good time, so what else did you buy on your shopping trip?" The green haired boy asked.

Not overly surprised, when both girls told him, that they had bought a lot of new clothes today, it was after all something most girls liked using money on.

He was however a bit more interested, when Meyrin told him, that she had also bought two new games, for her small portable game system. "So which games did you buy Meyrin?" The boy asked, while looking straight over at the pigtail girl.

Who immediately began telling him, that the first one was a new version of an old role playing game, and that the second one was some kind of platform game she didn't know the first thing about. The only reason she had actually bothered using her money on that game, was because it had been really cheap, and it was always nice to have something to do, when things was getting boring around the ship.

"I see that's sounds interesting Meyrin, maybe once you are done playing the first of the games I can borrow it?" Nicol asked a bit hopeful, thinking back to when he had last played a new game.

Now that he was really thinking about it, he realized that it had been a very long time since, he had last bought something for himself. Every last penny he earn, was just sitting on his account, not being used for a single thing.

Maybe tomorrow he should consider going out and use some of it, and with that in mind he again looked up at the two girls.

"Maybe once I'm done working on my mobile suit tomorrow, the three of us can out and get something to eat? I'll buy!" Nicol offered hoping deeply that his two female friends would say yes.

Seeing as he wasn't really all that keen on walking around Orb all on his own. He want at least a little company if he had to leave the ship, even if it was just for a few hours.

Truly happy to hear Nicol's offer to by them food both girls smiled a bit at each other, before they gave him a reply.

"Ok Nicol you got a deal, if you really intend to pay for food, then Meyrin and I surely wouldn't complain!" Luna said in a loud happy tone, already looking forward to get something nice to eat, that hadn't been made in the Minerva's kitchen.

Nodding a few times in understanding to that, Nicol stood up from his sit and got ready to leave the room.

"Great I look forward to it, now then if it's all right with you two I think I'll take your advise, and get to bed. I'll see the two of you tomorrow!" He said, while giving both of them a short polite bow.

Before he slowly turned around, and began making his way towards the exit of the mess hall, with each girl yelling good-night after him.

"Well it looks like tomorrow is going to be a fun day too" Meyrin said, happy to know that she had something to do tomorrow, other then lay around in her room for an entire day.

Which in her eyes could get boring quite fast, and there wasn't really much need for her up on the bridge these days, seeing as the ships hulls was still undergoing the last few repairs, and that was not something she could help out with that.

Think slightly about what her little sister had just said Luna nodded slowly in agreement, while looking up at the ceiling, trying to figure out where exactly they would be going tomorrow.

She did however not do that for long, before she again looked down and over at her sister.

Where she immediately noticed the happy smile she had on her face, which wasn't much of a surprise, seeing as Meyrin had been complaining a lot about how bored she had been, the last few days.

That had actually been one of the reason Luna had asked her go shopping today, so she had something to do other then walk around the ship and look like an exact copy of Shinn.

And thanks to Nicol they now also had something to do tomorrow, other then waste and entire day hanging around the ship, not doing a single thing.

She did however not think long about how entertain tomorrow could be, before she decided to get early to bed and get some sleep for whenever the three of them would leave the ship, and head out in to the city one more time.

"Well if we got nothing else to talk about Meyrin, I'll be going to bed too. I'm really looking forward to start reading my new book" Luna said, as she stood up and was just about to leave the room, when Meyrin called out to her that she had forgotten her can orange juice.

"Ohhh right, thank you sis!" The ZAKU piloted said in a grateful tone, while she quickly ran back in to the room and grabbed the can, then turned around and once again began walking out of the room, with Meyrin following closely behind her.

Both red hair girls heading slowly back to there own rooms, each of them having their very own plans about what they where going to do now.

Luna want to read for a bit, while Meyrin was determined to play a few hours on her portable game system.

She had yet to try any of the new games, she had bought while she and Luna had been out draining their accounts for whatever money that had been on them.

It wasn't much later before the two sister bid each other good-night, and was now walking of in two different directions, both of them with a happy expression on their faces.

To be continued.

I'm sorry that there hasn't been so many Lacus-Kira moments yet, but I promise you guys that they will be there.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

It was early morning up on the Plants.

Athrun was in the small apartment, Chairman Durandal had permitted him to use in the time he was up there.

Up until now he still hadn't made up his mind about joining Zaft again, not that he was really thinking all that much about it right now. Seeing as he was far more busy at the moment watching some old cartoon show, on the TV and eating his breakfast.

He did however not get much time for himself, before there was a hard knock on the door.

Hearing that Athrun quickly placed his bowl of cereals on the table beside him, while wondered slightly who in the world that could be. It wasn't like there was a whole lot of people, that knew he was living there temporarily.

And that cut the possibility of who could be out there, down a great deal.

But that didn't mean Athrun wasn't a bit cautious when he opened the door, but once he saw that the person out there wasn't a threat, he visibly relax.

"Yo you most be Athrun Zala, it's an honour to meet you" the orange hair guy said in a tone, that made it sound like Athrun should already know who he was, but truth be told, Athrun didn't have the slightest idea about who exactly this person was.

"It's nice to meet you too, buutt who are you?" Athrun asked now again being a bit cautious, in case this somewhat weird person, had only showed up there with the intention to start a fight with him.

It wasn't like he was expecting not to have a few enemies in Zaft, he had after all betray them two years ago, and this person might be carrying some kind of grudge for that.

But whoever the person in front of him was, just gave him a small smile, as he finally told Athrun who he was and what he was doing there.

"Whoops it seems like I forget to present myself, sorry about that, I'm Heine Westenfluss and I was order by the Chairman, to keep an eye on you while you where taking a small look around" Heine said, in an even louder tone then before.

Hearing just what this guys purpose was there, Athrun couldn't help but blink a few times, as he nodded slowly in understanding.

"I see, thank you for coming, but I honestly didn't expect you to show up this early in the morning!" The blue hair teen said, while taking a short look back at the television, that was still running loudly in the living room.

"Hm all right then, you just tell me when you are ready to go" Heine said in a friendly tone, while he too took a glance over on the television, thinking a bit about how much he had enjoyed that show, when he was smaller.

Yet now it was very rare, that he would have the time to be watching something like that, but he really did think it was quite funny seeing the cat and mouse fight with each other in those old cartoons.

He did however not get long to really think about that, before the other person there cut of his thoughts about his childhood.

"Well if it's ok with you Mr Westenfluss would it be all right that I finished of my breakfast before we leave?" Athrun asked, feeling his stomach growl a bit in hunger.

But the orange haired teen just smiled a bit at him, as he slowly nodded his reply.

Happy to know that he wouldn't have to walk around hungry, Athrun made his way back to his chair, and dropped back down in it.

After that he once again grabbed on to the bowl of cereals, where he hurried took a big spoonful of it, while smiling a bit at some of the more violent things the small mouse was doing to that pure cat.

Not that it really seem to bother the cat at all, no matter how otherwise destructive it might be, the cat would somehow survive everything uninjured.

But even as he was think about that and eating his food, he took a small glance back at the other person in the room, that was still standing over by the door, clearly watching the minor war, that was happening on the television.

"You don't have to stand over there, you can come in and sit down, if you want to" Athrun told him in a friendly tone, while the orange hair guy walked over and sat down in the only other empty seat, that was left in the living room, still keeping a close eye on the TV.

Seeing that Athrun stood up and walked in to the kitchen where he filled up the bowl with cereals again, then poured a bit of milk on, before he once again walked back to his own chair, where he began working on draining the small brown bowl of it's contents.

He did however not get all that much time to do that, before Heine turned his attention away from the cartoon and over on Athrun.

"So where exactly are we going, once you are ready to leave?" He asked a bit curious, hoping that whatever the blue haired teenager want, wouldn't take the whole day.

He did after all have a few other assignments that needed to be done today.

And if this fellow insisted that they walked around all over the colony, it did not take much of a genius to figure out, that he wouldn't have nearly enough time to carry out his other tasks.

But it did not take much time before his concern about how long this would take was put to rest.

"I want to go to the grave sight of my mother and a few old friends" Athrun said in a far away tone, as he thought a few minutes about his mother's smiling face, it still was a bit hard for him to believe, that it had already been such a long time since she died.

From time to time it really did feel like it had just happened.

Especially with everything that was simmering just under the surface, just waiting for somebody to make the whole thing explode. Not that he got time to think about who that somebody would be, before Heine cut of his deep thoughts.

"I see, well I know that there is a small flower shop not far from here, why don't we stop by there and find something nice to put on the graves?" Heine said not doing a thing to hide, how sad he was feeling right now.

He too had a few old comrades buried there, and now that he was really thinking about it, he realized that it had been a very long time, since he had last visited that place.

But he truthfully didn't like going there unless he absolutely had too, it did after all bring up more then few painful memories about the past, not something he liked to think all that much about.

But perhaps he really should consider going there, by himself at some point in the future. And once he heard Athrun say that paying a visited to that small flower shop was a good idea, he decided to go there on his next day off.

It was just about that time he saw Athrun stand up from the chair again, then walked in to the kitchen where he quickly cleaned of his bowl in the sink, before he put it down on the counter, after doing that he turned and looked back at Heine.

"You take the lead, I don't really remember where exactly that flower shop is" Athrun told him, as the two of them began making their way over towards the door.

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About a half hour later Athrun and Heine was at the giant grave sight, and even true it had been some time now since Athrun had visited the place, he had no trouble at all finding the spot where his mother's grave was located.

Once there he asked Heine if he would please leave him alone for few minutes, which the orange hair guy did without saying a word, he just walked a few metre away.

While Athrun stood there looking at the name on the small headstone, until he finally kneel down and place the first bouquet of flowers in front of the stone.

"Mom I have missed you a lot the last few days, there is so many things I really want to tell you about. I mean I proposed to the woman I love more then anything else in this world, and she said yes. I'm sure that you would have loved her, if you had met her" Athrun said in a truly sad tone.

As he carefully reached out and slowly ran his hand over his mother's name, trying to imagine how well the girl he was in-love with and his mother would get along had they ever meet.

"Maybe someday I can bring her here so you can meet her" the boy said in a small tone, while a single tear left both of his eyes and ran slowly down each of his cheeks.

Not that Athrun really noticed, seeing as all of his attention was turned towards the small tombstone in front of him, still thinking about the loving woman who's name was on the stone, now trying to figure out just how she would have react, if he had told her that he was getting married.

But it didn't take long before he saw a small picture of her telling Cagalli and him, that they should hurry up and give her some grandchildren.

And even true Athrun didn't know if that would have been her exact words, he could quite easily imagine her saying something like that, if for no other reason then to tease them.

And just the whole idea about how embarrassed Cagalli would get by being told something like that, was more then enough to make a light smile ran over his lips.

He did however not think about that for long, before he again reached out and gently brushed his hand over her name one more time.

"I'm really sorry mom, I know that it has been a long time since I have last been here, but I need to get going, I do hope that I will have the opportunity to visit you one more time, before I have to go back home to Cagalli and earth" the blue hair boy said, as he stood up and got ready to leave, even true a small part of him truly wanted to stay a bit longer.

But he really didn't have the time for that, he did after all have a few other graves to visit, while he was still up there.

"I'll see you again mom, I promise" he said in a soft tone, as he slowly turned around and began making his way back to Heine, that was standing a few metres away from him.

Seeing Athrun get over beside him. Heine looked at him for a few short seconds, which was all he need to tell that the blue haired teenager was somewhat depressed right now, not that Heine didn't understand why.

Those few times he had lost some of his comrades in battle had truly been terrible, yet it had to be twice as hard to lose once own mother.

Not something Heine would wished for anybody to experience, that was actually one of the reasons why he had chosen to joined Zaft in the first place.

He want to do his part in making sure, that nobody would have to lose the people they cared about even again. But even as those thoughts was slowly making their way through his mind, he gave Athrun a somewhat sad smile.

"Ready to head for the next grave?" He asked almost in a whisper, as he took a small look around the place to see if there was anybody else nearby.

But the only other people he could see from there, was an older couple standing in the distance looking at one of the graves. Not that he got much time to do that before Athrun snapped him back out of his deep thoughts, by telling him that he was ready to continue on.

Which meant that it did not take long before Athrun was leading them over towards a few other graves. And they had only been walking for a few minutes before the former Justice piloted stopped, and looked down at one of the tombstones.

"Hello there Rusty" Athrun said in a sad tone, as he slowly bent down and place another bouquet of flowers in front of the stone, thinking hard about the person which name was written on the headstone.

He did however not do that for long before he stood up straight again and gave the stone a respectful saluted, which made Heine do the same thing, even true he did not know a single thing about this person.

He just kinda felt like it was the right thing to do.

Especially when he noticed how much respected Athrun had for whoever this person was, not long after that Athrun turned and began making his way over to the place, where Miguel's headstone was supposed to be located.

And it wasn't long after that before they where over by the tombstones that had Yzak's name on it, where Athrun slowly lifted his hand and gave it a small saluted.

But before Heine could join in like he had done with the other two stones they had been by, the blue hair teenager lowed his hand again. And now he was just standing there watching the headstone, with a far away look in his eyes.

Seeing how quick Athrun had been to saluted whoever this person was, Heine took a small glance away from the stone and over at his new friend, where he could quite easily tell that Athrun had lot on his mind.

And if he had a guess on what it could be, it was most likely something that had happened in the past, this place could get just about anybody to think about some of the more terrible events, from the last war.

So after watching the other boy for a few seconds Heine decided that he couldn't stand the silence any longer. And with that in mind he slowly reached out and place his hand on Athrun's shoulder, making him jump slightly as he turned around and looked back at him.

"You don't have nearly as much respect for this guy as you had with the other two right?" He asked, hoping to get Athrun to think about something else.

Hearing Henie asked that Athrun again looked a bit thoughtful, as he took another glance back at Yzak's grave. "It shows huh? Well he and I where never the best of friends. Truth be told I really do think he hated me most of the times, but it's not like I did a whole lot back then to become friends with him. If I taken the time to do that, he might still be alive today, even true I kinda doubt that, he was quite stubborn" Athrun said, while thinking back to the very last day any of them had seen Yzak alive.

"Hmmm if you don't mind me asking how was this guy killed?" Heine asked, wondering what this person could have done for Athrun to have this little respect for him.

He too had of course meet a few soldiers he didn't get along with.

But he always did his very best, to become friends with everybody he was fighting together with, he always felt like that was one of the best way for himself and his comrades to survive.

Thinking slightly about what Heine had just asked him, Athrun let out a small breath, as he began explaining in a heavy tone what Yzak had done, shortly before he had been killed.

"Me and a few other friends was on a mission in Orb to try and find something, he was lefted behind on a Vosgulov class. But there he apparently threaten the crew to let him leave and give him a Guul, then he traveled to Orb where he seemed like he was just about ready to run amok and destroy everything. But before he could do that, he was killed by the Strike" Athrun said, while thinking about how destructive the battle between the Strike and the Duel had been back then.

Hearing about everything this guy done, made Heine take another glance down at the headstone.

"What a cheerful fellow, this guy most have been, he really does sound like he could have used some professional help" the orange hair man said, while going through everything, Athrun had just told him about this Yzak person.

Whoever he was, there was little doubt in Heine's mind that he had been a traitor and are insane one too, who in their right state of mind would threaten to kill his fellow soldiers.

But as he was standing there thinking about that.

He did not noticed how Athrun wasn't watching the tombstone any longer. He far more was busy, looking out in to the distance where a certain silver haired woman that was slowly coming towards them, with a big bouquet of flowers in her arms.

"We better hurry up and leave Heine, I can see Yzak's mother on her way over here, and I know that she doesn't like me, for what I did in the last war" Athrun said not taking his eyes away from the person, that most likely been the one to have given his father the much support two years ago.

She was well-known for hating the Naturals almost as much as his father.

Hearing Athrun tell him that it was about time for them to go, made Heine take a short glance in the same direction Athrun was looking, where he too could see the mature looking woman making her way towards them.

And even true she really didn't look like a bad person.

It was obvious that Athrun did not want to talk with her under any circumstances.

And with that in mind it did not take all that long before the two men was leaving the grave sight, before Ezalia Joule could get the slightest chance to say anything to them.

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It wasn't long after that before they where walking down the street in a deep silence, that was brought to an end when Heine walked up beside Athrun and looked over at him.

"The Chairman told me to ask you if you had come to a decision about joining Zaft again?" He asked, while taking a look forward to see where he was going, there might not be as many people on the street right now, but that didn't mean he want to walk in to anybody.

And while he was doing that Athrun had a deep frown on his forehead as he tried to come up with an answer to his new friends question, in his eyes he did have a lot to gain by being a Zaft soldier.

And it was not just the whole thing with the Saviour gundam he was thinking about.

If he really did return to Zaft, he would have a great deal of allies that felt the same way about another war as he did. And if he worked together with them, he would have a lot of people that could help him, put an end to this as soon as possible.

That way everybody that he cared about could continue living their peaceful life back home in Orb, in his eyes that was actually the only reason why, he needed to put on a Zaft uniform once more.

"I think I'll be joining again. Everybody up here really does seem to be feeling the same way about all of this as I do, that's why I want to help you all out to make this world war free again!" Athrun said, while lifting his eyes away from the sidewalk, and looked up towards the ceiling of the colony.

Still thinking about the decision he had just made about joining up with Zaft again. No matter what challenges he would have to go through in the future, he was now certain that fighting for Zaft was the right thing to do.

Gilbert Durandal really had done everything possible to make sure, that this would not end like the last war.

And Athrun had no doubt, that everything the Chairman had told him was the honest truth, which was something worth fighting for, not that he got long to think about that, before the person that was walking beside him began talking to him.

"I see I'm glad to know that we have a new ally to help us out with all of this, you know what they say the more the merry" Heine said with a grin on his face.

Not that Athrun said anything back, he just gave Heine a small nod as he kept on walking slowly back towards his apartment. Still thinking hard about the big change that would soon happen in his life.

It wouldn't be long now before he once more would be having his very own mobile suit, something he had honestly thought he would never have ever again.

Yet he was quite certain that he had made the right decision by doing this.

But even as he continued thinking about that, he couldn't help but wonder what kind of reaction Cagalli would have, once she learned that he was now a part of Zaft again.

He just hoped that she could somehow prevent Orb from joining up with the Earth Forces. If the small country really did something like that, he was a bit afraid where his decision might lead.

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Meanwhile down on earth Andrew Waltfeld was busy doing something that looked very much like some kind of science experiment.

"Hmmm maybe if I add a bit of this I can get it to taste even better then last time" he said, while slowly pouring a few drops of rum in to his new blend of coffee, truly hoping he wouldn't ruined the already quite well tasting coffee.

After that he slowly took a small sip of liquid.

"It was better before, but if I work this right I may create my best coffee yet" the man said, as he took another sip trying to find out what ingredients was missing to make this coffee perfect.

But as he was wondering about that he slowly turned and walked over to the small radio he had in his room. And it did not take long before he was sitting in his chair trying to get in contact, with a certain grey space ship.

"Hello Minerva can you hear me, Minerva please come in, I got something very important to tell you!" Andy said, still thinking about what was need in the coffee that was now simmering by itself over on his table.

But even as it was doing that Andy kept on trying to get somebody on the Minerva to answer him.

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At the same time on the Minerva Talia was wondering who in God's name this guy was, and why in the world was he trying to get in contact with her ship.

It didn't make any sense in her mind.

But once she heard him tell that he had some information they could use, she reached out and pressed down on a button on the radio, after that she immediately began talking in a loud tone, while hoping a bit that this wasn't some kind of prank.

"Who is this? And why are you contacting us?" She asked in a loud tone, while taking a glance over at Arthur where she could easily tell that he too was concerned about who this strange person was.

But instead of getting an answer to any of her questions, the man on the other end just let out a happy laugh as he again began talking to them.

"Well hello, hellooo! It's nice to hear another voice out here. I would like to order a pizza without anchovies and a giant coke!" The voice joked.

Not doing anything to hide that whoever it was that was talking to them right now, was having fun.

But that just made a deep angry frown ran over Talia's forehead as she open her mouth and began talking back to the idiot on the other end of the line.

"If you really don't have anything important to say, then I don't think it will do us any good listening to you!" She said, back deciding to give the man one last chance to say what he want if he didn't do that, she was sure that it was just some guy pulling some kind of prank.

But that of course did not explain how this person knew the name of her ship.

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Hearing the captain of the Minerva tell her that she didn't want to listen to him any more, made a small grin ran over Andrew's lips, as he continued talking to her, this time having a more serious tone in his voice.

"Ok, ok no more joking around, what I really want to tell you guys is that it's time for you to get moving. If you stay in Orb much longer your are going to be in some serious trouble" he said, while taking another sip of his coffee not really caring right now if it tasted good or not.

"It wouldn't be long now before Orb will join with the Earth Forces even with Chief Representative Athha's determination to stay away from them. And if you are still hanging around here, when Orb joins them, you can be sure, that it wouldn't be an easy task for you guys to get out of here!" Andy said.

Then took a glance back at Kira and Murrue, that had just enter his room, and was listening in on everything he was saying to the Minerva.

It was just about that time the three of them could hear Talia's voice again.

"Why exactly are you telling us this, and who are you, how do I know I can trusted some strange voice over the radio?" The woman asked, obviously not satisfied with getting a warning like this by a complete stranger.

So after using a few seconds to try and come up with a way to convince the woman, that he was serious about this.

Andy finally let out a small breath.

"I can't tell you who I am, but I was asked by Andrew Waltfeld to tell you this, and if you don't take my warning, then I'm sure that you will regret very soon!" Andy said.

Just as he wished the captain and her ship the best of luck, after that he cut of the communication and looked back at Murrue and Kira where he gave both of them a big smile.

"Do you really think they will take your warning?" Murrue asked still smiling over the last thing Andy had told the captain of the Minerva.

In her eyes it had been quite funny and she almost wished that she had heard the whole conversation between Andy and captain Gladys, for some reason the Desert Tiger could turn even the most serious discursion, in to something funny.

Thinking a bit about what Murrue had just asked him, Andy got a somewhat thoughtful look on his face.

"It's kinda hard to tell, but if they don't hurry up and leave soon, then I'm certain that it will only be a matter of time before the Seiran's find something they can use that ship for, they might even use it, as some kind of symbol to show of their new loyalty to the Earth Forces!" Andy said, as he walked over and to his giant coffee machine, still trying to make up his mind about what else he should throw in to the mix.

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At the same time back on the Minerva's bridge, Talia had a deep thoughtful frown on her forehead, as she stood there thinking about everything the stranger had just said to her.

She really didn't know if she could take that risk and trusted the Desert Tiger.

He did after all betray Zaft in the last war, which meant that the information they had just gotten from this strange man could be some kind of trap.

And she really didn't want to put her crew in danger if she could avoided it.

But on the other hand, if this weirdo she had just talking with, was right about Orb joining the Earth Forces. It would with no doubt be very dangerous for them to continue staying there.

And she certainly didn't want somebody to try and board the ship in the middle of the night, that could be a true nightmare if something like that where to happen.

It was not like she didn't trusted the young Athha, the blond girl had done everything possible to help them out.

But the rest of the Orb government was a completely different matter, especially the two Seiran's she had meet was a creepy bunch. They really did acted like they would give away their own mother, if there was even the slightest chance for them to get even more power.

And with that in mind she slowly turned and looked back at Arthur.

"Please begin preparations to leave immediately, we will be heading out at sunrise. And do make sure that the entire crew knows what's going to happen, we don't want to leave anybody behind now!" Talia said, while taking a short glance around the bridge, just as she heard her second in command ask, if it was really a good idea to follow the advice of some stranger.

Hearing that Talia again looked back at Arthur, where she slowly nodded.

"I think we can trust whoever it was, if you really give it some thought Arthur, he was right about many of the things he said. We really will be in a lot of trouble if Orb joins up with the Earth Forces, and if we are still here once they do that. They might just try and get control of the ship, and there is no way any of us can take that risk!" She said, while making her way back to her chair.

Still with Arthur and the few other people up there looking after her, each of them thinking hard about what she had just told them, finally Arthur opened his mouth and asked one more question.

"Do you really think they would try something like that?" He asked, already feeling a bit nervous over the idea of somebody breaking down the door on the ship and then try and make it their own.

"I'm not sure Arthur, I do believe that miss Athha wants to help us. But those Seiran's and the other politicians in this country, may not be as nice as her" The woman explained in a somewhat worried tone.

Just as she order Arthur to make sure that there was a few more guards by the entrance of the ship, they did not want somebody to drop in uninvited.

Thinking a bit about the captain's words, Arthur really could see the logic in everything she had just said. So after just standing there for a few more seconds, he let out a small breath, as he hurried stood up straight.

"I'll get to work immediately Ma'am" he yelled out in a loud determined tone, as he quickly made his way over to his own chair.

Once there it did not take long before his voice could be heard all over the ship.

Telling everybody onboard that the Minerva would be leaving Orb tomorrow morning, and that the crew was no longer permitted to leave the ship, under any circumstances.

To be continued.

If you hadn't guess it, the TV show Athrun and Heine was watching at the begin at the chapter was of course Tom and Jerry, I don't really think that show ever gets old.

But the thing I really want to say is, that I do not own any rights to that series, I just borrowed it a bit here, I hope that's all right.

Another thing I think you guys should know about is that, I don't know the first thing about coffee. It's not a beverage I myself drinks, so I wouldn't know if it taste good with rum or not.

And if it's completely insane to pour rum in it, then please tell me and I'll replace it with something else, you are welcome to come with suggestions, if you know of something that does taste good.


	12. Chapter 12

I'm sorry about how long this took, but this was a pretty difficult chapter to write, and if that was not enough I had a few problems with my computer that needed to be fixed.

Fortunately it was still under guarantee so at least it didn't cost me anything.

Hopefully the next chapter one wouldn't take nearly as long.

Chapter 12

It was quite early the next morning.

Cagalli was up on the Minerva's bridge talking with Talia Gladys.

"I'm truly sorry that you have to leave with in such a haste!" The blond haired girl said, while giving the captain of the ship a small bow, trying not to show the woman how depressed she actually was over everything that was going on.

In her eyes, there was just no way the world and Orb could show enough gratitude after everything the Minerva had done.

It did after all save earth from getting hit by Junius Seven, if that ship hadn't stepped in when it did, there was no telling how many innocence people would have died down here.

And that was another thing Cagalli was sad about, she had honestly hoped that the grey Zaft ship could have left Orb in a peaceful way, instead of being forced to leave because of the country's decision to join with the Earth Forces.

Hearing the young woman said that and seeing the depressed look she was trying so hard to hide Talia couldn't help but smile a bit.

The teenager truly was a nice person.

And it was a bit of a shame in Talia's eyes that the rest of the politicians here couldn't follow her example, not that she was going to say anything about that, it wasn't her job to interfere in this country's decisions.

Even true a small part of her really want to tell the young woman how disappointed she was over Orb's decision.

But it was obvious that the girl was already feeling pretty bad about the whole thing.

And there was no way Talia want to rub even more salt in to the wound, the blond princess already had a tough enough job as it was, without her making things worse.

"It's all right miss Cagalli, we have already been here much longer then necessary, and it's about time that we got moving now that all the repairs on the ships hull is finished. And I really do believe that we have exploited Orbs hospitality more then enough!" Talia said, as she moved over and stretched out her hand towards the young woman, who only hesitated a small second before she took a hold of it and shook it back.

After that Talia took a quick look around the bridge, where she could easily tell that everybody up there was just waiting for her to order them to move out.

Seeing that she again turned her eyes back towards the young woman.

"I think it's about that time we got going miss Cagalli, it was a really deep honour for all of us that you came here to see us depart" Talia said, as she saw Cagalli nod a single time in understanding.

"I hope all of you will have a safe trip, and that we can meet again someday under more pleasant circumstances!" Cagalli said, while she gave each crew member up there a small smile.

After doing that she slowly turned around and began walking towards the exit of the bridge, once there she took one last look back at Talia where she immediately wished all of them the best of luck.

Hearing her say that Talia turned and looked back at the blond girl, but she was already gone before she had the chance to say anything back, so in the end she just stood there for a small minute, with a slightly far away expression on her face.

But finally she slowly shook her head a few times, as she mumbled out a small thank you, after that she turned around and walked back over to her chair.

Which she immediately dropped down in to, now just waiting for Cagalli's escort to tell her that the blond girl was no longer on the Minerva, they surely didn't want an extra passenger, once they left this place.

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Elsewhere Cagalli was walking slowly down the ships halls with two guards walking closely behind her, she hadn't gotten very far before she saw Nicol and Shinn coming towards her from the other direction.

She already knew that it was a bad idea to say anything to the pilot of the Impulse, he had already made it very clear that he despised her a lot, and that glare he was giving her right now, was all she need to know that he did not want to talk with her under any circumstance.

Not that Cagalli cared much about that, she would much rather have a nice little talk with the green hair boy, that had a complete opposite expression on his face, then the one Shinn had, he was smiling at her.

"It really was nice seeing you again miss Cagalli!" Nicol said, as he gave the blond girl a respectful bow, which made Shinn let out a small unhappy growl sound.

But that wasn't something Nicol or Cagalli gave all that much attention, Cagalli just took a small glance over at him, before she took a single step forward, where she hurried wrapped both of her arms around Nicol giving him a friendly hug.

"It was nice seeing you too Nicol, I really do hope that you will come visit us from time to time. I know Dearka and everybody else would like the opportunity to talk with you again!" The blond girl whispered in to his ear, just before she gave his cheek a small kiss.

She really was sad that she and Athrun hadn't been able to spend a little more time with Nicol, he really was a good friend and Cagalli knew that she was going to miss him once the Minerva was gone.

But unfortunately there wasn't anything to do about it now, both she and her fiancé had been way to busy the last few weeks, to have any time to hang out with their old friend.

Something that had actually disappointed her a bit, but once she saw the small blush he had on his face right now.

It did not take long before she let out a small giggle, he did look kinda cute right now.

It really wasn't all that strange that Mayura and her two other old friends had enjoyed hanging out with Nicol as much as they did. He truly was a nice guy, and she was certain that someday he would make some girl very happy.

She did however not think about that for long before the former Blitz pilot asked her what she was laughing at, but she just shook her head a few times.

"It's nothing Nicol, I was just think a bit about the past!" She explained, while giving him one more small hug, once she had done that she took one more look over at Shinn, to see his reaction to all of this.

But much to her relief he obviously didn't have anything to say, he was far more busy staring of in to the wall with a somewhat unreadable expression on his face.

Happy to know that she wouldn't have to get in to another argument with the angry boy, she again turned her attention back towards Nicol.

"I hope that it wouldn't be long before we will see you again Nicol" she told him, just before she once again walked off down the hall, still with the two guards behind her.

Watching her disappear around the corner Nicol felt a small smile ran over his lips. "I hope so too miss Cagalli!" The green haired teenager said.

And was just about to continue on his way down to the ships hangar, when Shinn suddenly began talking in a displeased tone, that made it completely clear that he had not been as happy about seeing the blond haired girl, as Nicol had been.

"I don't get why the hell you can be friends with that girl!" The Impulse piloted said, still glaring of in that direction Cagalli had gone in.

Hearing that Nicol slowly turned his eyes over towards his short tempered friend. "Who I'm friends with ain't really any of your business Shinn" he said in a slightly angry tone.

He really was getting tired of Shinn's attitude towards Cagalli and the rest of Orb.

He had pretty much been complaining none stop, ever since they arrived there. And Nicol seriously didn't feel like listening to that much longer, it was getting more and more annoying every time.

Which was something that had really been putting Nicol's otherwise deep patience on trail.

He had caught himself more then a few times wanting to tell Shinn to stop his complaining, the only reason he hadn't done that was simply because he did understand why he was doing it, he did after all lose all of his family down here.

And if it really did make Shinn feel better doing all of this complaining.

Nicol truly didn't want to be the one to tell him to stop it.

But that did not mean he wasn't happy about leaving Orb, he was quite certain that once they got out of there, the Impulse pilot would go back to his usually good mood, or at the very least the mood he use to be in before they got to Orb.

"You really should try and restrain you hatred Shinn, if you continue like this, you are going to get yourself killed someday" Nicol warned, as he turned around and once again began making his way down to the hangar.

With Shinn looking after him until he was completely out of sight. "Ok that was a bit strange, the last few times I have been badmouthing that girl, he has always tells me to stop doing that, but now he just gives me a few advice" Shinn quietly said to himself, feeling a somewhat confused about Nicol's calm reaction about everything he had just said about the stupid blond hair bitch.

He really didn't understand why Nicol was letting him of easy this time, the few last time he had made a rude commented about Cagalli the green hair boy had always end up with getting angry at him.

But this time much to Shinn's amazement, Nicol had just looked at him with a disappointed expression on his face, then told him that he should try and get his hatred under control.

But as he was standing there thinking about that he slowly shook his head a few times.

"There is no way anybody could kill me for hating that girl!" He muttered out in a loud tone, while thinking about what kind of people would be sad to see that girl die.

In his eyes there wasn't a single person out there anywhere that would be sad to see that girl die.

So if he ever did get the opportunity to kill her, he would surely take it, that was definitely a promise.

And with that in mind, it did not take long before he was slowly making his way down to the hangar where the Core Splendor was located, still thinking about how much he truly hated the blond girl and the rest of her damn family.

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It wasn't long after that before the Minerva was slowly making it's way out of the port, with Cagalli standing by the side watching the grey space ship leave.

Once gone it did not take long before she turned around and began walking slowly back towards the big building next to the harbour, for some reason she felt like both of her feet was weighing a few kilos right now.

She just couldn't help but fear, that the next time she would see the grey Zaft ship, it was going to be an enemy of Orb.

Not something she want, but she had pretty much done everything in her power trying to talk the other Orb politicians out of the whole idea about joining force with the Earth Forces.

But up until now only a few of them had agreed on, that it was a stupid idea for Orb, to get involved with the Earth Alliance, unfortunately the few who had done that where not enough to change the decision.

But perhaps if she would try talking with Yuna about it one more time, she could get the purple haired moron to change his mind.

"Yeah right, who are you trying to fool Cagalli Yula Athha!" She muttered out in a angry tone.

She already knew that getting Yuna to agree with her on this was pretty much impossible, he had already made it completely clear what his opinion was on all of this.

And once that fool had made up his mind about something, it had to take some kind of miracle to get him to change it.

"Damn him!" She muttered angrily while still thinking about what she should say to the man once she found him, but there was just no telling where he could be right now, but she was determined to at least try one more time to talk the stubborn idiot out of this.

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And while Cagalli was of searching for the person that had brought Orb in to so much trouble, the Minerva was getting closer and closer to the countries border.

Up until now everything seem pretty peaceful even with the Orb fleet that was following closely behind them, but unfortunately none of them got the time to really enjoy the ocean view before they saw a fleet of Earth Forces ships directly in front of them.

And just one small look at them, made it obvious that they where just waiting for them to show up.

"Wh...what's going on?!" Arthur asked in a somewhat concerned tone, while he slowly ran his eyes over all the ships out there, which was more then enough to make a small shiver ran down his spine.

For some reason he found the whole scenery very frightening, it did after all not take that much imagination to figure out what those ships was there for.

"It looks like we are being offered to them, as some kind of sign of loyalty, but from what I know Orb hasn't joined up yet!" The captain said, while trying to find a way around the ships to avoid getting in to a battle with them.

But the only other way they could go, was back to Orb and all those war ships that had escorted them this far, clearly wasn't going to let them slip back in.

All of the Orb ships looked just as ready for combat, as the Earth Forces fleet did, so in the end Talia couldn't help but let out a big sigh.

She truly wished there was a way to escape from there without going in to battle. But they really didn't have any other options, the only way they could get continue on, was to fight their way through every single opponent out there.

"Go to condition red, we have to fight them, they clearly don't want us to leave this place alive!" Talia yelled loudly, while the ships bridge was slowly lowed down in to it's more safe position, once that was done Talia order all the mobile suits on board to be made ready for combat.

After that she quickly explained to all of them her plans for them to escape this little trap, they would try and pounce their way through the left flank, where it seemed like there wasn't nearly as many ships, as there was directly in front of them.

And while Talia was saying that it did not take much time before the Minerva was slowly change direction, now traveling just outside of Orbs border.

Unfortunately they didn't get very far before Bart called out a few more bad news.

"Captain we got about twelve Windams coming right at us, and that ship to the right of us is firing missiles!" The man shouted loudly, just as Talia yelled out for them to evade the first attack, while at the same time for them to get the mobile suits out there.

Hearing the woman give that order Meyrin immediately began telling her sister and the other pilots on the ship that they could leave.

"Do make sure to tell Shinn and Nicol not to go too far away from the ship!" Talia said in a serious tone, she wasn't really all that worried that Nicol would run of to fight all the enemies out there on his own.

But Shinn might get the idea that he could handle everybody out there on his own.

Sometimes his ego did get the better of him, that was actually one of the reasons why, she from time to time couldn't help but wonder, why Gilbert had permitted the short tempered teenager to be the pilot of the Impulse.

It wasn't really a big secret around the ship, that both Rey and Nicol had much better control over their emotions then Shinn had.

But now wasn't really the time for her to try and figure out why Gilbert had thought it was a good idea for Shinn to be the pilot of that gundam, she could always ask him about that, once they where safely away from this damn place.

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Meanwhile down in the hangar Nicol's GOUF was slowly being moved over to the catapult, while he listen closely to everything Meyrin was telling them.

From what he could understand this wasn't going to be an easy task, with the great numbers opponents out there.

It was at times such as this that it was a real shame that they didn't have any other gundams on board other then the Impulse. But he knew just as well as everybody else on the ship, what had happened to the three other gundams that had been made for the Minerva.

He just hoped that they wouldn't run in to them other there, after everything Meyrin had just told them, the Earth Forces had brought more then enough mobile suits and weapons to start a minor war.

And if they had to fight the Chaos, Gaia and Abyss too, then there was no doubt in Nicol's mind that all of them where in for a very serious beating.

Something he was sure that none of them would enjoy, especially now that everything on the ship had just been repaired after the small trip they had taken through the atmosphere.

He did however not give that much thought, before he got a completely determined look in both of his eyes, there was just no way he would allow the Earth Forces to do that much damage to the ship.

Not after spending so much time in Orb getting it fixed up again.

And with that in mind it didn't take long before his yellow mobile suit left the Minerva, followed shortly by the white ZAKU and then the red one.

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Once out there it did not take long before Luna yelled out her opinion about all of this.

"Damn it, why are there so many of those guys!" She yelled while shooting of her ZAKU's giant beam cannon, hitting one of the Windams straight in it's chest area, making it blow up not all that far away from the ship.

It was about that time she heard Rey tell her that she should try and take out those who was still far away from them, while he took out those guys that got to close to them.

Hearing that she immediately took a small glance over at the white mobile suit, and even true she didn't like being bossed around with.

She could see the logic in what Rey had just said, her weapon did have a much longer distances, then the beam rifle Rey was using right now, so without taking the time to argue with him.

She quickly turned and aimed out at three Windams that was obviously trying to find someway to get around the ship so they could take out the engines.

Not that Luna was going to let them do that, she seriously didn't feel like being stranded out there.

Just waiting for the Earth Forces to destroy them, so after giving her low lips a small hard bite, she fired of the cannon, hitting one of the Windams and getting the two others to change direction.

But they didn't really get all that far, before they where taken out by a certain yellow GOUF.

Truly happy to see that Luna hurried looked around for a new target and it only took a small minute, before she found something else that in her mind would look much better with a few holes through them, something she was determined to make no matter what it took.

"Eat this you damn bastards!" She yelled loudly, while taking down two more of the Earth Forces mobile suits, before they could even try and attack the ship.

But even true both she and Rey was doing everything in their power to take down as many of the Windams as possible, there was just no way for them to prevent the ship from getting hit by the next attack, more then a few of the missiles got through the Minerva's tight defense, and made a great deal of damage to the newly repaired hull.

And once the ship stopped shaking from that attack, both Rey and Luna once again began taking down one Windam after another.

But even as they where doing that, it really didn't seem like there was going to be an end to them anytime soon, there was just so damn many of them out there right now.

Luckily they where a bit more cautious about attacking the ship head on, after seeing how easily the first wave had been taken out.

Something both Lunamaria and Rey was quick to take advantage of by shooting even more of them down, before they had the opportunity to get of even more of the missiles they where most likely carrying.

"Luna there is five more coming this way, and from what I can tell from here, those guys a going to try and take the two of us out!" Rey said, in a serious voice.

As he fired of his own missiles at the Windams, that hurried tried to evade the attack.

Only to be destroyed by a few red shoots from Lunamaria's giant weapon, but that didn't really slow the wave of incoming enemy mobile suits down much, they just kept coming.

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Meanwhile far above them Shinn was in the Impulse, flying full speed in and out between the many beams a small group of Windams was firing at him.

But even true he did not have the time to count how many there was attacking him right now, he still used ever single opportunity to shoot back, he had already taken out a great deal of them, by fighting this way.

But it was getting somewhat obvious to him that he couldn't take them all down like this, he had to fine someway to put an end to this, before even more Windams showed up to interfere.

And with that in mind he hurried turned his mobile suit around and took of towards the closed war ship, still with about seven of the Earth Forces mobile suits behind him.

And once he got in ranger of the Danilov class he immediately began opening fire on it, which proved to be more then enough to make it shoot back at him.

But just before the attack could hit him, he hurried evade out of the way, so the only thing the ship end up hitting, was three of it's own Windams, that had been crazy enough to follow him, the whole way down to the ship.

Seeing that there was still four of them left Shinn quickly took aim at the nears Windam and fired a single green beam directly through the cockpit of the white mobile suit, killing whoever was inside it before he even had the time to realize what was happening.

But once he did that, the last three immediately began attacking him, with the same eagerness as before, but this time he had next to no trouble getting rid of them.

Satisfied that there was nobody else around that was attacking him, he once again turned his attention back towards the Danilov class, that was obviously trying to get away from him.

Seeing those damn cowards run away like that, he hurried fire of two shoots at the stern of the retreating ship, making sure to take out the engine, before it could get too far away from him.

And once he was sure that the ship couldn't go anywhere.

The boy immediately took of towards the place where he could see Nicol flying around, with about four Windams on his tail, something that made a deep anger feeling slowly swell up inside of Shinn.

He and Nicol might not agree on every single thing, but there was no way in hell he would just stay put out there, while one of his friends where in trouble.

So without wasting anymore time, he hurried began making his way over towards the smaller battle.

Determined to tear every damn Windam over there completely apart.

And what made him even more angry, was when he saw two more of the Earth Forces mobile suit join the others in their attack on his friend, which of course served to make the strange hateful swelling inside him, build up even more.

"Damn you all, I'm going to make sure that you are going to regret doing this!" He muttered in a small deep tone.

Just before he flew in between the Windams where he hurried used the beam saber to cut one of them in half, making it blow up just behind him.

And before any of the others, had the chance to try and counterattack, he grabbed on to the beam rifle and fired of one single well placed shoot, directly in to the head of the closed enemy machine.

Seeing Shinn do that, Nicol immediately pulled out the beam sword and slammed it with full force in to the back of one of the Windams.

Just as it was about to attack the Impulse, then he began shooting of the beam gun at another one of them, taking it down just as it tried to figure out where the attacks was coming from.

But even as the green haired teenager was doing that, he couldn't help but keep an eye on Shinn.

For some reason the Impulse piloted was fighting even more violently then usual, which wasn't really all that strange.

If they didn't give everything they got in this battle, there was no way they could escape from this mess, without getting killed.

"I'm grateful for you help Shinn, but we have to get back to the Minerva, we are too far away from it!" Nicol yelled, just before he wrapped the heat rod around the right leg of one of the enemy machines.

But as he was doing that, the enemy machine pulled out a strange looking weapon Nicol had never before seen on a mobile suit.

"A kunai!" The green haired boy called out in surprise.

And before he even had the time to get over the minor shock, over seeing a mobile suit armed with something like that, the Windam quickly pulled it's hand back and throw the small weapon at him.

But just before it could get in contact with the GOUF.

Nicol quickly maneuver his yellow mobile suit up over the small throwing weapon, while at the same time shooting of the beam gun at the Windam.

Making two of the beams fly straight in to the Windams cockpit, while the next few tore the white mobile suit completely apart, before it had any time to try and pull out yet another one of those weapons.

Seeing that the Windam was no longer a threat to him or any of his other friends out there, Nicol hurried called out and told Shinn one more time, that they had to get back to the Minerva.

There was just no way, the two of them could ever hope to defeat all of those Windams by them self, they surely where going to need the others help, if they truly desired to survive this battle unharmed.

Hearing Nicol say that, Shinn took a quick look over at the GOUF, before he cut one of the Windams in half, killing whoever was inside the white machine.

But he didn't stop there, he hurried used the shield to defend himself from another attacking Windam, while at the same time charging full speed forward where he slammed the beam saber straight in to the Windams cockpit, making the enemy mobile suit blow up directly in front of him.

After that he hurried pulled out the beam rifle again and fired of a few shoots at a new group of the truly annoying mobile suits, hitting the lead one of them in it's chest area, while making the others evade quickly to the sides.

But that of course did not stop Shinn's relentless assault on them, he kept on shooting after them no matter what they did to avoid his attacks.

"You just hurry up and go Nicol, I will cover you!" Shinn yelled out, as he fired a beam in to the back of one of the Windams making it smash full speed in to the ocean where it immediately blow up in a smaller explosion.

Not that Shinn gave that much of his attention, he was already trying to take down another one of the Windams. But while he was busy doing that, he was suddenly attacked from below, which forced him to get out of the way in a hurry.

"What the hell was that?" He asked.

Just as he gave the closed Windam a hard kick in the back, only to use the beam rifle to shoot it down a few seconds later, while trying to spot what had attacked him before.

But it didn't take long before he saw two grey coloured GOOhNs came up from the water, where they immediately fired of a few beams up at him before they disappeared again.

Seeing that Shinn couldn't help but narrow his eyes a bit, this was really begin to piss him off.

"How the HELL did those bastards manage to get their damn hands on something like that?!" The boy asked loudly.

Now being force to keep a close eye out on all the Windams out there, and the water incase the GOOhNs would attack again, but much to his small relief he did not have to worry about them for long.

"I have no idea where they got them from Shinn, they much likely capture them in the last war. But never mind that I'll go take care of them, if you make sure to keep the Windams busy!" Nicol said, as he flew full speed down towards the clear blue water, still with a single one of the Windams on his tail.

But that one didn't even get the chance to attack him, before Shinn shoot it down.

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Meanwhile back on land.

Cagalli had finally manage to locate the person she had been searching for since the Minerva had left. She was just about to call out to him, when she noticed what he and everybody else in the room was busy looking at.

"What?! The Minerva?!" She called out in shock, as she saw the grey space ship evade another attack from the Earth Forces ships out there.

"What's going on Yuna, why ain't we helping them?!" She asked in a loud tone, not bothering at all to hide how concerned she was about the ship, she and Athrun did after all spend sometime on that ship.

She might not like it nearly as much as the Archangel, but there was no way she wished to see the ship being destroyed, if they could do something to help.

Hearing the blond girl ask him that, Yuna slowly turned and looked over at his fiancée, where he immediately gave her a small smile, as he began explaining the whole situation to her.

"We can't help them Cagalli, this battle has nothing to do with us, seeing as it's happening outside of Orb's territory!" Yuna said, while taking another look up at the screen, where the smile on his face got a little bigger when he saw the Minerva take yet another big hit from the attacking Earth Forces.

He did however not get much time to really enjoye it before Cagalli interrupted his thoughts again. "You can't be serious Yuna this is going on just outside of Orb, are you really planing to just stand around here while the Minerva is getting attacked like this?" She asked, while she walked the rest of the way over to the purple haired man, where she immediately noticed the slightly wicked glimmer in both of his eyes.

Which that was more then enough to make her realize that this attack on the Minerva, was something he and his father had arranged.

And once she heard his next few words, she had to fight hard not to slammed her fist straight in to his face.

"There is no way we can help them Cagalli, we are after all joining force with the Earth Forces, and this is a great way for us to show that we are serious about fighting together with them!" Yuna said, as he took one more small glance up at the screen.

Hearing him say that Cagalli took one more step over towards him, where she slowly reached up and placed her right hand on his shoulder.

Which was enough to make Yuna turn and look back at her, where she slowly leaned in and whispered something to him.

"I swear Yuna that someday I'm going to make you regret doing this, I don't know when and I don't know how, but you are going to be very sorry about all of this!" She promised in a tone that nobody else in there could hear.

After that she gave his shoulder a very hard squeeze, making sure not to hold back, she truly wanted for this to hurt him. And one small look in to his eyes was all she need to know, that she had carry out her objective.

Then she hurried turned around and left the room without saying anything else, the only thing she did before the door flew shut behind her, was to send everybody in there a disappointed glare.

Once done with that, it did not take long before the blond girl was gone once again, a few of them there feeling a tiny bit uncomfortable because of her angry look.

But it did not take long before Yuna called out, and told them that there was still a lot of things they need to do, they had to make sure that the Minerva didn't enter Orb's territory again.

But even as Yuna was saying all of that he couldn't help but feel a small shiver ran through his entire body. The cold way Cagalli had been talking to him just before she had left again, was more then enough to make him feel like his blood was going to freeze over.

And just the idea of her using that kind of tone, when she was talking with him was something that really made him want to yell out a few curses towards the damn girl.

Luckily for him he knew that doing something like that was not the best idea, if all those people gather around the room, where to hear him do something like that, there was little doubt in his mind that it would ruined the loyalty he and his father had worked so hard to get.

And if that where to happened, he knew that there was no way in hell his father would ever forgive him.

And with that in mind he slowly turned his eyes back towards the battle the Minerva and the Earth Forces.

But even as he was standing there watching them fight like that. He couldn't help but wonder what in the world Cagalli was going to do to make him regret this, it did however not take long, before he slowly shook his head a few times.

"There is nothing she can do on her own, she is just a spoiled little brat" he whispered quietly to himself, still feeling somewhat unsure about everything Cagalli had said to him, for some reason he couldn't help but feel like she was still close by, just watching everything he did.

And that feeling alone almost made him wish that his father was there, so he could talk with him about what they should do about Cagalli.

It was becoming more and more obvious that the damn girl where not going to surrender to their will, and she had already showed more then a few times that she did not want to marry him.

And that ring he had seen her walk around with the last few days, was all he needed to know, that she was hoping to have a nice married life together with that damn Zala kid.

They really should have gotten rid of that boy along time ago, but now that he was no longer in the country, there might be a way for him to convince Cagalli that it was better for her to marry him.

And if he couldn't do that, they might have to arrange for her to have some kind of creative accident that would remove her from Orb permanently.

But as he stood there thinking about, what they could do about the blond haired brat, he again looked back a the giant monitor, where he watched the battle for a few short minutes, deeply hoping that it wouldn't take long now before the Minerva would be rusting away at the bottom of the sea.

But even true Yuna was far from the greatest strategist in the world, he could easily tell that the Earth Forces had to do something drastic if they where to take that ship out.

And unfortunately there was nothing Orb could do to help get rid of those damn Coordinators on the grey vessel.

If they where to do something now, he was completely sure that Cagalli would use that to her advantage and get even more people over on her side.

Which was certainly not something he could allow to occur, the Earth Forces had to do this on their own. "Damn it take it out!" He muttered quietly still keeping both of his eyes turned towards the intense battle on the screen.

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Back on the battlefield Nicol had just finished taking out the first of the GOOhNs and was now looking around after the last one.

But as luck would have it the guy in the other GOOhN was clearly a much better piloted then the first one.

He kept coming back up to the ocean surface every time there was an opportunity to attack him from behind. It was only luck and pure skill that saved Nicol from being killed by the captured mobile suit.

"I can't continue going on like this, soon or later he is going to hit me!" Nicol yelled out in a angry tone while shooting of the beam gun down in to the water trying his best to stop the GOOhN from moving around to much.

But seeing as he had no idea, where the submarine type mobile suit was hiding down in the deep blue water.

It was kinda hard for him to slow the thing down, much least take it out before it would end up killing him.

And there was no way ,he could go down in to the water, his GOUF wasn't really made for deep sea combat like the GOOhN was. But if he didn't come up with a strategy very soon, he knew that there was no way he was going to survive this battle.

But even as he was thinking about what he should do, the GOOhN once again came up to the surface and fired of two green beams right up at him.

Fortunately Nicol was already prepared for the attack, so he really didn't have much trouble evading the attack, but while he was doing that the GOOhN once again disappear back in to the ocean.

Seeing the enemy mobile suit do that, Nicol hurried took a quick look around for anything he could use to fight the GOOhN.

But there was not a single thing around this place he could use to his advantage or so he thought. Suddenly he noticed a small blurry shape moving around not that far below him.

And it was then he realized that the sun was giving so much light right now, that he could now see the GOOhN swiming around down in the clear blue water.

And it was only a spilt second later before the GOOhN resurfaced one more time.

But before it could attack him again, Nicol slammed the beam sword full speed down in to the grey machine, making sure to hit some of the more important things on the mobile suit.

And as it tried to escape from him, he hurried fired of the beam gun down in to the GOOhN making it blow up before it could get to far away.

Happy to know that he didn't have to do battle with any more under water mobile suits he quickly turned around and took of towards the Minerva, determined to give Rey and Luna a hand against the small army of Windams, that was still swarming around all over the place, like a bunch of annoying insects.

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At the same time on the biggest of the Earth Forces ships out there.

"Captain over half of our Windams have already been destroyed and those two GOOhNs have also been taken out!" A man yelled in a slightly worried tone, he just could believe, that four mobile suit alone had been enough to take out so many of their own.

If he hadn't been there to see it, there knew that there was no way he would ever have believed it.

Yet the two ZAKUs that was standing on the Zaft ship deck had been powerful enough to keep their Windams at bay.

And what they hadn't destroyed, was taken out by the gundam and that yellow mobile suit, for some reason he couldn't help but think that they had to destroy those two first, before they went after the Minerva.

But the commander of ship kept on insisting that they took out the grey space ship first.

Before they would remove the gundam from this world, but it was becoming more and more obvious that even with so many Windams there was no way they could win this fight.

And even true the commander truly hated to admit something like that with all of his being.

He knew that he had to come up with another idea, before the Zaft ship got through the rest of them, if it did that he knew for sure that it would escape, and that was not something, he could allow to happen.

If his force succeed in taking that monstrosity of a ship out, he was certain that a new promotion he had been wishing for was not far away, the only thing he needed to do, was to reach out and claim it before it would slipped out of his grasp.

But for some reason this was much harder then he had first expected, how the hell could one single ship and four mobile suits handle them self against his entire fleet.

In his eyes it really should be an impossible task, yet the damn Zaft ship continued holding them back with everything it got, and that was more then enough to make his blood boil, they where not going to win this, that was for sure.

"Ok hurry up and get the Zamza-Zah out there we are taking the Minerva out right now, before it can get any further away from us!" The man yelled, already looking forward to see the big mobile armor, tear the Zaft ship apart.

Hearing the commander give that order everybody up there turned and looked over at him.

"But....but sir we are not done testing that thing out, we don't know if it's entirely stable yet, it might end up being destroyed if it goes out there!" The man said deeply worried.

For some reason he did not like the idea of using that mobile armor, the three pilots of that machine where pretty much insane and there was no telling what they would do, if they joined the fight.

Unfortunately all of his worries didn't have any effect on the stubborn commander.

"We are sending the Zamza-Zah out no matter what, that mobile armor may just be the right weapon we need to sink that damn ship!" The commander yelled, while taking a short glance around the bridge.

Before he once again turned his two angry eyes back towards the battle, that was still going on not that far away from them. "Get to work!" He said in a angry tone.

Which made it clear for everybody up there, who was feeling unsure about following that order, that they might find them self in some very serious trouble, if they did not do what he said.

And with that in mind, it did not take long, before the giant mobile armor the ship was carrying was being made ready for combat.

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And while the Zamza-Zah being made ready to leave.

Shinn was flying full speed towards a lonely Windam that did everything it could to try and escape from him.

But the Impulse was just that much faster then the Earth Forces machine, and it did not take very long before he slammed the beam saber straight through the mobile suit, after doing that he took a quick look around for anymore enemy machines.

And it did not take him long to find three new targets that was obviously trying to get behind the Minerva.

"Ok you bastards that's far enough!" He yelled and was just about to take of after them, when he noticed a big green scary looking mobile armor leaving one of the Earth Forces ships.

Just the sight of the armor was enough to make his eyes widen a bit, as he tried his best to figure out what kind of machine that was suppose to be, and what the heck they where planing to do with it.

He did however not give it much thought, before he saw that it was heading directly towards the Minerva. "I have to stop that thing no matter what!" The boy yelled out in a determined tone.

While he hurried got the Impulse moving and was now flying full speed after the green mobile armor, that by now was already busy playing tag with Nicol's GOUF.

Yet just one small glance at the battle between his friends mobile suit and the huge mobile armor, was all Shinn need to tell, that there was no way the GOUF had the require strength, to beat that monster.

Which made Shinn fly even faster towards the fight, where he hurried took aim with the beam rifle and fired two shoots down at the armor, truly hoping that this was all that was need to get the damn Earth Forces machines attention away from Nicol.

But unfortunately the positron reflector shield that was installed on the mobile armor, was more then enough to defend it from his minor attack.

He did on the other hand succeed in getting the mobile armors attention, which meant that it was now heading directly towards him.

And it didnøt even take a second before the Earth Forces machines began shooting after him with every single weapon it had, seeing that Shinn hurried ducked down under the first rain of beams, then fire a few times up in to the bottom of the armor.

Unfortunately he had no more luck in damaging the machines this time, then the first time he tried to attack. And the mobile armor was not up for giving him anytime to come up with a way to beat it.

"Damn you to HELL!" Shinn cried out loudly, while slowly backing away and shooting of the beam rifle at the armor, that of course flew straight at him where it tried to wrap one of it's claws around the Impulse.

But much to Shinn's luck the gundam was just so much faster then the other more slowly moving machine. But even as he was doing that, a new rain of beams left the hideous thing, which forced him to used the shield to save himself from the attack.

That however did not stop him from throwing the rifle away and charge full speed at the green armor, now holding on to the right beam saber.

And just as the armor fired of it's next heavy attack after him, he hurried evade down under the beams so they flew straight over him, only missing the head by a few short centimeters.

And just before any of the pilots inside the mobile armor could do anything to get the positron reflector shield up.

Shinn slammed the beam saber with as much force as possible down in to the armor, removing one of it's claws on the machine before the pilots had enough time to realize what was happening.

But when Shinn pulled the weapon back and was about to do even more damage on the armor, one of it's claws reach out and grabbed on to the Impulses right arm.

And just one look at the armor was enough to show, that it was about to try and shoot him down, while it was still holding on to him like this. And just the whole idea that they where crazy enough to try something like that.

Was all Shinn needed to see some kind of seed fly through his mind.

And once that happened the dark haired boy hurried throw the shield away and pulled out the left beam saber, and just as the armor was about to attack him again.

He slammed the saber down cutting the right arm straight of the Impulse, now free to move around as much as he want he didn't hesitate a second in slamming the saber down in to the armor, now cutting away one of it's many cannons.

But even while he was doing that, he saw one of it's claws heading right for him, it was obvious that those bastards, was trying to get a hold on him one more time.

And there was no way in hell he would allow them to do that. So before the claw even came near him, he hurried back away leaving the left beam saber still embedded in the mobile armors hull.

That however did not slow the damn thing down at all, it actually looked even more ready to do battle with him now, then it had when it first had entered the fight.

And that alone was more then enough, to make the boy even more angry.

He truly want to demolish this damn thing, he need to make sure, that this thing could never be used again. And with that in mind he called out for Meyrin to send out the Sword Silhouette and fire the Deuterion beam.

Which meant that it did not take long before the Impulse was once again fully armed with a new bunch of deadly weapons, that the mobile suit was more then ready to try out on the mobile armor.

And with a small grin on his face, Shinn pulled out the two beam boomerangs and throw them with as much force as the Impulse could muster towards the mobile armor, that of course tried it's best to defend itself, with that damn positron shield.

Seeing that happening, Shinn reached up and get a hold on the two beam swords, and once again charged with high speed towards the armor.

This time feeling all the more determined to make scrap metal out of the stupid thing.

"YOU ARE GOING DOWN!" He shouted loudly. Just before he let out a big angry scream and trusted both weapons down at the green armor. That of course did everything possible, to keep him away.

But that just served to make Shinn increase the powers on the gundams thrusts as he began forcing his way through the shield.

"I already told you, that you are going DOWN you bastard!" He yelled, just before the shield broke down under the presser, and it didn't even take a second before both beam swords disappeared in to the hull on the mobile armor.

It did however only take a short minute before Shinn pulled them out again, only to once again slam them back in to the machine.

Which was all that was need to make the armor glow up in a bight light. Seeing that he hurried pulled the swords out again and rapidity backed away from the mobile armor, just as it explode a few meters away from him.

That however didn't damage the Impulse at all.

So once he was sure that there was nothing else nearby that could threaten the Minerva, he took of full speed down towards the closed war ship, still holding on to both of the beam swords.

"You guys are going to pay for using something like that!" Shinn yelled, as he land on the ships deck where he immediately thrust the two deadly weapons down in to the bridge of the ship, tearing the whole thing completely apart.

Once done with that, it did not take long before he was making his way to the next ship, which he of course gave the same kind of treatment, cutting it up without showing the panicking crew any signs of mercy, everything on it the grey warship was destroyed as Shinn used the two assembled beam swords to slice the giant ship in half.

After that he took of for the next Earth Forces vessel again using the two swords to take it out.

He continued like that almost five whole minutes jumping from one ship to another, cutting and tearing them up like they where nothing. It was only when he heard Meyrin tell him that they where leaving the area, that he began making his way back to the Minerva.

Leaving an entire fleet of destroyed Earth Forces ships in his wake, not showing any signs of regret or remorse about killing so many people.

If anything he couldn't help but feel proud about what he had done. They where after all the once who had attacked them, so in his eyes they pretty much got what they deserved.

And the idea, that he have been the one to give to them, where enough to make a small grin ran over his lips.

He was already looking forward to hear what everybody else on the Minerva, had to say about his newest performers in the Impulse. It wasn't like it was everyday occasion that so many enemy ships got destroyed.

And now that he was really thinking about it, he could not help but feel like his skills in the gundam, had been much better then the last time, he had been in his mobile suit.

But as he was slowly making his way back to the ship, he didn't noticed Nicol's machine hanging far above him looking down at all the mess and destruction Shinn had made.

For some reason he could not help but close his eyes and mumbled out a small pray for all the people his friend had just killed. He just couldn't deny, that the sight of the many slowly sinking ships, was enough to make him feel somewhat depressed.

They might have been trying to kill them, but he was sure that some of them on board was most likely just following orders.

"Rest in peace all of you" the teenage said in a truly sadden tone, then turned around and began making his way back to the Minerva, not feeling nearly as happy and proud about all of this, as Shinn had.

The only thing the green haired boy want to do right now, was to get out of this almost boiling hot mobile suit and get something cold to drink, he was sweating so much right now, that if he told anybody that he had been running marathon through a desert, they would most likely believe him.

Truth be told, it really did feel like his mouth was as dry as sandpaper.

Which wasn't really much of a surprise, they had after all been fighting for a very long time now, so it was no wonder that he was thirsty.

He just hoped that he didn't get dragged in to a long conversation once he got back to the ship.

The only thing he truly desired at this very moment, was to be by himself for a while so he could get some liquid down his throat, and thinking about everything that had happened in this battle.

And it did not take long before the yellow GOUF slowly enter the Minerva's hangar, where Nicol immediately began making his way over to his mobile suits usual spot.

Once there he quickly powered the machine down, then opened the cockpit, and slowly lowed himself down to the ground, where the first thing he saw was Shinn surround by most of the mechanics on the ship, and the two other pilots.

It was obvious that they where giving him a heroes welcome, pretty much everybody over there was praising him and telling him how good a job he had done taking out that green mobile armor.

And just the sight of that big smirk that was covering most all of Shinn's face at the moment, was all Nicol need to tell that the dark hair boy was truly enjoying getting all of this attention.

And even true Nicol also thought that the pilot of the Impulse had done a good job, there was just something that was bothering him about the whole thing.

Why in the world had he suddenly began fighting so much more violently, it kind remind Nicol about how Kira and Athrun had sometimes been fighting in the past, and that one time he had asked them about it.

They had just told him that it had something to do with some kind of seed they would see once the battle began getting really serious. And the sight of how Shinn had tore his way through that mobile armor, was more then enough to make Nicol wonder if Shinn too possessed that ability.

But before he could decide if he should ask the other teenager about it, Lunamaria did the job for him.

"How in the world did you fight so well Shinn, I have never seen anything like that before?!" The girl said in a loud exciting tone, that could be heard through pretty much the whole hangar.

For some reason when she had seen Shinn take on that mobile armor she couldn't help but be amazed, it truly had been and incredible sight.

And it really made her wonder why he hadn't been fighting like that before.

If he had done that, she was almost completely certain that he could have easily defeated the three stolen gundams. But his next words did put a small damper on her excitement.

"I....I....really don't know what happened Luna, the only thing I remember was a strange feeling that kept yelling out for me to beat the crap out of that mobile armor, after that I felt some kind of powerful rush ran through me" the boy explained, as he tried his best to figure out what had been going on, when he was fighting with the green mobile armor.

He did however not get long to think about that before somebody placed a hand on his left shoulder, which of course immediately made him turn around to see Rey standing behind him, giving him a friendly smile.

"You did are good job Shinn, you should be very proud about what you did out there, you really did pull through for all of us here on the Minerva" the blond haired boy said, seriously delighted to know that Shinn had finally been able to go in to seed mode.

This truly did bring them a step closer, in killing that one person that would no doubt, do everything possible to stand in their way.

But with a little more training, Rey was certain that it would only be a matter of time, before Shinn had all the power he need to take down the person that had taken away one of the few people in this world.

Rey had truly respected with all of his being. But now it wouldn't be much longer before they could remove the Ultimate Coordinator from this world.

Just a bit more time and Shinn would have improved so much that he could end Kira Yamato's miserable existence. And that was in Rey's eyes, something that was worth celebrating.

He was already looking forward to tell Gilbert about this. He was certain that he too would be very, very pleased about getting such good news, this was after all the reason why, they had chosen to have Shinn piloted the Impulse.

Both Rey and Gilbert had know for a very long time now, that the short temper boy had the capability to activated the seed. And that really did make him the perfect told to get rid of everything that was standing in the way of Gilbert's plans for this world.

But even as Rey was still thinking about that, with a small slightly wicked grin on his face, he once again began talking to everybody in a cheerful tone.

"Well anyway now that we are finally out of danger, I think it would be a wise for all of us to get some rest" he said, while taking a glance away from Shinn and over at the two other pilots.

Nicol had a somewhat unreadable expression covering his face, which made Rey wonder slightly what the young man could be thinking so hard about.

But once he turned his eyes away from Nicol and over towards Lunamaria. Where he instantly noticed, that she had a more exhausted look in her eyes. It was pretty obvious, that she was just about ready to run off.

But as he stood there looking at her, it did not take long before the red hair girl told all of them her opinion about what Rey had just said.

"That's a great idea Rey, I could really use a good long nap just about now" she said in a loud tone, while thinking a few seconds about how totally exhausting it had been keeping all of those Windams away from the Minerva.

She couldn't even remember how many of them she had shoot down, but no matter how great a number it had been, it had certainly taken a lot out of her.

And with that in mind, she slowly turned around and began making her way out of the hangar. "I'll see you all later!" She called back to them.

Just as she disappeared out in to the hall, that would take her back to her own room, where a nice long shower and her soft bed was waiting for her. She just hoped that it would take some time now, before anything else would happen.

Seeing the red hair girl go like that. It did not take long, before the rest of the people down there, began making their way back to their own quarters. All of them just as determined to get some rest, as Lunamaria had been.

Each of them, really had been having a very tough time, beating back those Earth Forces bastards that they had been fighting not long ago. And it didn't really take all that much time, before most of the hangar was pretty much empty for people.

The only once left down there, was a few mechanics that was busy checking out the four mobile suits for any kind of damage.

But both the Impulse gundam and the three mass-produced mobile suits, all looked just as ready for combat now, as they had been before the Earth Forces had shown up, which meant that none of the mechanics truly had any reason to be down there.

So it wasn't long after before the light was turned off, as the rest of the ships mechanics left the room too.

Each of them heading of for other places on the ship, where their expertise was surely needed. They might have won this battle, but there was still a lot of things on the ship that had taken some serious damage, and was once again in need of repairs.

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At the same time back in Orb Yuna was watching with big eyes, as the Minerva began steadily sailing away from the area.

How the heck could that damn ship survive all of that.

Why the hell didn't the Earth Forces destroy it, when he and his father had gone through so much trouble making sure that the Minerva had been an easy target, that the Earth Forces should have taken down in the start of the battle.

Yet the only thing left of the big Alliance fleet was a few slowly sinking ships, that was on their way down to the ocean floor.

"Damn it, how could they have lost?!" He muttered, while taking one last look at the Minerva that by now, had almost disappeared completely in the horizon.

But even true the only thing he could see of the ship now was it's big stern, he continued watching the ship as it got further and further away from Orb's territory.

It was only when the damn Zaft ship was completely out of sight that he finally looked away from the screen. "Keep are close eye out for any survives, it would be very inhuman of us to let those soldiers that made it safely through that battle drown out there!" He said in a loud tone, that almost made it seem like he had nothing to do with the gruesome battle they had just witness.

And it was only when he was sure that everybody there had understood his last order that he turned around and left the room.

Now however not bothering to do one single thing to hide, how disappointed he was over the fact that the Minerva had escaped their little trap, almost completely intact.

And even as he continued down the hall, heading towards his father's office.

He could still clearly see the pictures of how the grey Zaft ship had fought it's way through the giant Earth Forces fleet that had been out there.

"Damn it all, I need to hurry and tell my father about this" he muttered, already trying to come up with another plan to destroy the Minerva, once Orb officially joined forces with the Earth Forces.

This was surely going to be the one and only time that ship would ever escape from one of his traps, that much was certain. "You just wait Minerva, the next time we meet the Orb fleet will destroy you" Yuna said in a determined tone, as he changed direction and began heading down another hall that would take him directly to his father's room.

Unfortunately he was so far away in his complaining about the Minerva's escape.

That he did not even realize that a somebody was following him not all that far behind him, and that the person could hear every single thing, he kept on saying about the Minerva.

It was only when he got to his moron of a father's office, that Cagalli turned away and softly tiptoed off before Yuna would notice her presence. But as Cagalli slowly kept getting further away from the stupid idiot.

She had a very difficult time keeping her anger in check, how dared those two bastards do something like that, they where not even a part of the Earth Forces yet.

That however hadn't stopped the two Seiran's from preparing such a dangerous trap for the very ship she had personally invited to Orb, as a way to thank them for saving the earth, and every single person on it.

"You are going to pay for this Yuna and you too Unato" Cagalli said, making sure that there was nobody around to hear her.

It wasn't like she had all that much loyalty right now, and what little she did have, she certainly didn't want to lose, because she was busy talking with herself about giving the two Seiran's the punishment they truly deserved.

"I better make sure to tell the others about this" the blond girl said while she began walking even faster, determined to get to her own office as quickly as possible so she could call the married couple. To tell them about what the two Seiran's attempted to do today.

No matter what she was certain, that all of them out in that house, would be very interested in hearing what she had to say.

To be continued.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

It had been kinda peaceful the last few days since the Minerva had left Orb, which meant that now Dearka had been able to sleep as much as he want.

It had only been about ten minutes since he had gotten out of his and Miriallia's bed. And even true a small part of him had truthfully want to stay in it, he had to get up to go to the bathroom.

And once he had finished his business in there.

He realized that he was hungry, which meant that he was now making his way to the kitchen, where his nose was telling him that somebody in there was busy making bacon and eggs, which certainly wasn't something he would say no to.

And it was only a few seconds later before he arrived at his destination where he saw Murrue Ramius occupied with preparing the delicious food.

"Good morning miss Murrue" he called out in a still somewhat tired tone, as he stood there looking at the big meal she was working so hard to make, he was already looking forward to get his portion of the food.

One thing the brown hair woman had made quite obvious since they all had end up living in this house, was that she was a very good chef.

It really didn't matter what she made it would always be very tasty, so after standing there watching her work for a bit, he slowly turned around and walked over to the cabinet where every single plate in the house was kept.

Once over there he quickly pulled out a few of them and began putting them on the table, he figure that was the least he could do, when she took the time to make so much food for all of them.

Seeing what the former Zaft pilot was doing Murrue couldn't help but smile a bit.

That really was a great help, she had been so busy getting the meal ready, that she had pretty much forgotten that they need something to put it on once she was finished preparing everything.

"Thank you Dearka, that's very kind of you, maybe once you are done you can go and wake up the others!" Murrue said, while taking a quick glance back at the bacon.

It really didn't tastes all that good if it stayed on the frying pan to long. She want to make sure, that she got it of at just the right time, and that meant that she couldn't leave the kitchen.

Hearing her request Dearka was just about to run of when Andy and Mayu enter the room.

"Good morning mom, that really smells good!" The brown hair girl said in a loud tone.

Before taking a deep breath, truly enjoying the aroma of all the delicious food that was being made, she was already hoping that it wouldn't be long now before her mother was done, and they could eat.

Seeing the two of them show up like that Dearka walked over to his usual seat and dropped down in it. "Well looks like all of us is here now!" The boy said not doing a thing to hide that he was still feeling a bit tired.

He wasn't really all that use to get up this early, under normal circumstances he would still be fast asleep at a time like this, the very few times he got up this early was usually because somebody woke him up.

But as he was sitting there trying his best to get the rest of the sleep out of his eyes, he didn't noticed that everybody else was looking at him.

"You do realize Dearka, that the married couple isn't here?" Andrew asked, from where he was busy preparing his usual morning coffee. If he didn't get some of that stuff at the start of a new day, then one could be quite sure, that the one eyed man would be in a bad mood, for the rest of the day.

Hearing those few words Dearka took a quick look around the room, where he immediately noticed that the Desert Tiger was right, there was no sign of Lacus and Kira in the room.

Which wasn't really that shocking, those two loved sleeping even more then Dearka did.

"Ok I guess you are right Waltfeld, but there is no way I'm waking them up" the boy said in a determined tone, still keeping a close eye on all the food.

Looking at each other for a few minor seconds.

Both Murrue and Andy once again turned their somewhat confused gazes, back towards the obviously still sleeping boy, that by now was peacefully resting his head on top of the table.

"And why exactly don't you want to wake them up?" Murrue asked in a curious tone, she really didn't understand why Dearka had so much against waking up the married couple.

She did however not have to wait long for an answer, as Dearka slowly removed his head from where he had been resting it for the last few minutes.

"It's very simple, the reason I don't want to wake those two up, is because the last time I did that, nurse Lacus and Doctor Kira throw me out of there quite violently, I actually think Lacus broke a lamp to get me out!" The boy said, still thinking about how much fun he had been having teasing the two of them about that.

They had each been so embarrassed the next many days after that event, that none of them hadn't been able to have a normal conversation with him.

Without at some point getting a red face, which of course just made the whole thing even more fun. And it was only when Lacus had threaten to deleted, his favorite game on the PC, that he had stopped with his teasing.

Thinking a few seconds about why the teenager didn't want to go wake up the married couple Andy finally let out a light chuckle, as he wonder slightly if it was the same nurse uniform he had given the two of them, when they had moved over on the Eternal two years ago.

But before he could ask Dearka what colour the uniform had been.

The smallest person in the room yelled out her thoughts about what she had just heard. "WOW you go big brother Kira and you too big sister Lacus!" Mayu called out with a big grin on her face.

Just as she quickly reached out and grabbed the first plate of food from her mother's hand, after that she immediately turned around and began making her way in to the TV, determined to find out if there was any cartoons on.

She didn't even noticed that the two men and her mother was looking after her like she was crazy, and it was only when she turned on the television, that Murrue let out a small sigh.

"Some times I don't know what to do with that girl" she mumbled just loud enough for Dearka and Andy to heard, and even true both of them could understand why the last words Mayu had said before she had run off for the living room, was troubling the brown haired woman.

Both of them couldn't keep their amusement back, hearing the girl say something like that was more then enough to make them laugh, which of course wasn't all that hard to hear.

And it did not take long before Murrue was looking right back at them with a slightly angry look on her face. She really didn't like it when her daughter was talking like that, in her eyes she was still a bit to young to know about what Kira and Lacus had been doing.

"If the two of you don't stop laughing, there wouldn't be any breakfast for any of you!" Murrue threaten in a somewhat serious tone, that made it obvious for both of them that she was not kidding around.

And it was only a small second later, before both men stopped their emotional outburst, while giving the brown haired woman their most innocent looks.

None of them really want to miss breakfast over something like this.

So now they both looked like two well brought up children, that would never cause trouble for anybody. But even with those looks on their face Murrue could easily tell, that both of them was still finding what Mayu said very entertaining.

And even true she frankly was a bit tempted to deny them the food.

She really didn't like the idea about dumping everything she had spend her entire morning working so hard on, in to the trash. So after giving them one more warning glance, she placed the two plates of food directly in front of them.

Then hurried turned around and walked of down the hall, heading towards the married couple's room to wake the two of them up.

If somebody didn't wake them up they really could spend the whole day in bed, and there was a lot of things that needed to be done around the house.

And there simply was no way, she want to do that on her own. She already had a few brilliant ideas about what the two men, she had left behind in the kitchen could do.

Now the only other thing she need to do right now was to wake up Kira and Lacus, which could be a hard task on it's own, the two of them where after all heavy sleepers and almost impossible to wake up from time to time.

But she wasn't goingto give up on this, without at least trying to get them out of bed.

The only thing she was a bit concerned about, was that they might be doing something else other then sleeping.

She honestly didn't want to walk in on the two of them, the things Dearka had mention about, Lacus dressed in a nurse uniform and Kira being a Doctor wasn't really something she wished to see.

And it frankly made her wonder why she had volunteered in the first place to live together with four hormone filled teenagers, counting Dearka and Miriallia too.

And when she finally arrived at the married couple's room, it was only through a bit of hesitation that she reached out and gave the door a small knock.

Fortunately there really wasn't anything for her to be worried about, as the door flew open almost immediately, where the very first thing she saw, was Lacus dressed in a light blue pyjamas and busy using her right hand, to remove some of the sleep from her eyes.

"Ohhh hello miss Murrue, is it morning already?" The pink hair girl asked, clearly hoping that it would not be long before she could get back under the warm cover, and just snuggle up in to Kira's arms for a bit.

But the answer Murrue gave her did put a damper on that idea. "Well it's still quite early, but breakfast is already on the table, and the two of you did promised me a few days ago, that you would help clean up around the house" Murrue explained, while smiling a bit at the tired expression her little sister figure's had on her face.

Hearing Murrue tell her that Lacus nodded slowly in understanding.

Just as she took a small glance back at Kira that was still sleeping peacefully in their bed, and a single look at his face was enough to tell her that he wasn't planing to wake up anytime soon.

"I'll try my best to wake him up. But I can't really promise you anything miss Murrue, you know as well as I do that from time to time, he is almost impossible to wake up, especially this early in the morning" Lacus explained, while turning her attention away from her husband, and back towards the other woman, that now had a somewhat thoughtful look in both of her eyes.

Which really made Lacus wonder just what she could be thinking about, she did however not have to wait long before her curiosity was put to rest.

"Hm if you really can't wake him up Lacus, then let him do it instead!" Murrue said in a serious tone, as she lifted her hand and pointed down at Haro that at this very moment, was slowly rolling back and forth on the floor, by Lacus' side of the bed.

Seeing just what miss Murrue want her to use to wake up Kira, the pink hair girl couldn't help but blink a few times, as she thought about how her husband would react having Haro interrupt his sleep.

For some reason the whole idea about using her noisy small robot for something like that, was more then enough to make small yet mischievous grin ran over her face.

"That's a very cruel way to get him out of the bed miss Murrue, I like it!" Lacus said in a somewhat wicked tone, while she slowly bented down and pinked up her little robot, where she looked at it for a few seconds before she slowly reached down and placed it just beside Kira's head, then took a step back to watch the show that was about to commence.

This really was going to be fun, and one look back at Murrue made it clear, that she thought the same thing, so after giving each other a small nodded Lacus again looked back at her husband and Haro.

"Mr pink what's my name?" She asked, trying her best to hold her amusement in, which was actually pretty hard seeing as this was bound to be fun no matter what.

And it was only a short second after Lacus had asked that one question, that the small robot yelled out an answer.

"LACUS! HELLO LACUS!" The pink little robot yelled so loud, that Kira actually tremble over the side of the bed and made a smashing sound as he land on the floor, where he immediately began yelling out about what was going on.

It was only when he heard the two women's laughter and saw Haro laying on the bed that he realized what had happened.

And without even giving it a second thought, his hands flew out and grabbed on to the two pillows on the bed, which he immediately throw of after the two laughing women.

The first one hitting Lacus in her face, while the next flew right past her and slammed straight in to Murrue's face.

Feeling that happening the two women immediately stopped laughing and just stood there looking at the grinning boy, each of them having a tight grib on the white pillows Kira had just used against them.

"Let's bring this rude fellow to justice Lacus!" Murrue said in a determined tone, as she change her hold on the pillow, quite obviously getting ready to use the soft thing as a weapon against the boy.

"You are right miss Murrue, we need to teach this man a lesson!" Lacus said, as she also got ready to use the pillow for combat.

Seeing the two women getting ready to give him a good beating with the very things he had thrown at them, Kira took a quick look around the room for a weapon of his own.

But the only thing near him right now was Haro and the cover. And there was no way he could use the robot for anything so in the end he slowly reached out and took a hold on the cover.

Which he fortunately had taken with him on his small trip to the floor.

"Well if the two of you, really mean that I deserve to be taught a lesson, then you just have to catch me first!" Kira yelled, while he hurried jumped up from where he was sitting on the floor.

And once he was up on his feet he immediately throw of the cover towards them, doing his best to make sure that it would end up blinding both of them.

Happy with the small distraction, Kira was quick to use this opportunity to leave the room where he immediately ran off, he did however not get all that far before he heard Murrue's voice again.

"We most not let that man escape!" The brown haired woman said in a determined tone, doing her best to keep her amusement about all of this down, it really had been a long time since she had last felt like a child.

And it was not long after that before the two women was chasing Kira all over the house, all three of them laughing like never before.

It was obvious pretty much to everybody that saw their playing around, that they where really enjoying them self and having fun.

Amazingly enough the two ladies' never did succeed in cornering the brown hair boy, and the task of hunting him down got even harder when he allied himself with Mayu, so now there was two against two.

But that did not stop Murrue and Lacus from trying, to give him a good beating with the two pillows they had been carrying with them, ever since they had left Kira and Lacus' room.

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It was a few hours after the small battle had ended, now everybody was working around the house doing their chores, Dearka was busy sweeping the driveway as he slowly rocked his head back and forth to the music that was coming out of his two headphones.

But even while doing that, he made sure to do his work properly.

Seeing as he certainly didn't want to do it again, if miss Murrue was not satisfied with his work.

At the same time not that far away from him Mayu was walking around with a watering can while Haro was jumping up and down right behind her, calling out her name every time he land on the ground.

Not that the girl gave the small robot much attention, she was busy concentrating on watering all the flowers that was planted around the house, the only times she took a small break from her job, was to fill up the can again.

But even as she was doing that she couldn't help but take a small glance over at Lacus and Kira that was helping each other washing the many windows that was on the house, something they where in serious need of, seeing as they had gotten quite dirty after the giant storm they had not long ago.

But even true the married couple was doing their best to finish of the task.

Both of them had a somewhat wicked gleam in their eyes as they kept taking small glance over each other.

It was obvious that both of them where ready to start of a water fight at any minute now.

And truth be told Mayu was a bit curious about seeing who would begin the next small war of the household. Not thay it did not really matter all that much who started it, Mayu was determined to join in under any circumstance.

Not noticing that Mayu was keeping a close eye on them, Kira kept stealing small glance at his wife, that was dressed in nothing else then a small tight green T-shirt and a pair of shorts in the same colour.

But even true, she looked unbelievable gorgeous right now, especially when she bent down to get some more bubbly water on the sponge.

Yet the strange way she kept on waving and smiling at him, really made him feel uneasy.

For some reason he just couldn't shake the idea away that she was up to something, and it did not take much of a genius to figure out that it had something to do with all the cleaning equipment, that was surrounding them.

Now that the brown hair boy was really giving it some thought, he realized that the garden hose was laying dangerously close to her.

The only thing she need to do was reach out after it, but even as she moved right over the hose, she continued working like nothing was going on, now even humming her favorite song.

Which only served to convince Kira even more, that it wouldn't be long now, before he would be at the receiving end of that green garden hose.

And determined not to let something like that happen if he could prevent it.

Kira slowly lifted his foot and stepped down on the hose, now slowly trying to draw the water equipped weapon closer to him, so Lacus wouldn't be able to use it against him.

But unfortunately he didn't get it very far before Lacus' hand flew down and grabbed on to the hose, then quickly turned around where she immediately opened fire on him.

Yet before the beam of water could actually hit him, Kira hurried throw himself to the side, so it was only his left arm that got hit by the soaking attack. But he didn't get any time to recover, before Lacus again took aim at him with her green weapon.

Immediately noticing what she was doing Kira hurried jumped back up on his feet, and ran off just as the cold liquid was about to hit him again.

Seeing her handsome slightly wet husband escape like that, the pink hair girl hurried took off after him.

"Kira honey wait up, I got a surprise for you!" Lacus called out after him in a sweet tone, that almost made it sound like she wasn't planing on giving him a big tour with the garding hose.

But when she noticed that he didn't slow down at all she began running that much faster.

Now even more determined to make sure that he wouldn't not get away from her, without getting completely soaked first.

But much to her small disappointment Kira was just so much faster on his feet then she was.

And that meant that the only way she could carry out her mission was to find another way to get close to him. So once she was sure that he couldn't see what she was doing.

Lacus quickly turned and began making her way around the house.

So she could catch him from the other side, luckily for her the hose was quite long, so she did not have to worry about having to leave her weapon half way through this little fight.

She just hoped that Kira wouldn't figure out what she was doing now, if he somehow found out about what she was gone do, she knew that her small yet important mission would get so much harder.

Luckily it did not take many minutes, before she saw him hiding out over by a few bushes, clearly looking around for her, but as far as what Lacus could tell from there, his back was turned towards her.

Smiling a bit at that, the pink hair girl began slowly making her way towards him, doing her best to stay out of sight for as long as possible. She did not want him to try and ran off again.

But as she got even closer to him, it became obvious, that he was not expecting her to attack from behind, which of course wasn't something the pink hair didn't hesitate to use to her advantage.

"Ohhh Kira!" She sang out when she was about five meters behind him, making him turn around.

Just as she once again fired of her powerful weapon of choice, this time hitting his chest and stomach with the ray of water, which of course was more then enough to make him let out a shocked gasp, when he felt the cold liquid hit him like that.

But it only took a small second for him to get over her surprise attack, and throw himself to the side to avoid getting hit by anymore of the water.

But even as he was doing that, Lacus hurried followed his path with the garden hose, now make sure that the water was hitting every single part of his body, which of course made him evade quickly to the side and ran off again, before his _somewhat mischievous _wife could get the chance to get him even more wet.

Unfortunately for Kira he didn't get very far, before he saw a new opponent on the battlefield. Mayu was slowly coming towards him, holding on to a big bucket of water, and with a truly evil smile on her face.

"MMm Mayu what are you doing?" He asked sounding a bit on edge, as he took a short glance over his right shoulder, after his garden hose wielding wife.

But much to his small relief, she had apparently gotten her weapon entangled around the bushes, he had just been hiding out by, and it did seemed like it was going to take her a bit, to get the light green hose loose again.

Which gave him just enough time to figure out what in the world Mayu was up to, that grin she had on her face really made him feel uncomfortable. He seriously did not like where this was going.

"I'm sorry big bro, but I'm joining the winning team in this battle, it's pretty clear that Lacus has the advantages right now!" The brown hair girl said while taking a step closer towards him, obviously getting ready to pour the contents of the grey bucket over him.

Seeing her do that, Kira didn't hesitated a second in taking off in a different direction, just as Mayu hurl the water after him. "Damn it big bro get back here and get a small drink!" The girl yelled, while she hurried began running after him.

But her short legs and the slightly heavy bucket, made sure that there was no way she could keep up with him.

So it only took a small minute, before he disappeared around the corner of the house. "Damn, he escaped!" The girl complained in a somewhat displeased tone.

Just as Lacus got up beside her now once again armed with the garden hose, which she had finally succeeded in getting free of all the bushes, but as she stood there looking around after her husband, she gave Mayu a small smile.

"Please don't worry Mayu we will find him again, he is begin to run out of places to hide!" Lacus said just as the presser disappeared from the hose, which meant that there was only one single place, around the garden he could be now.

And that was by the outdoor faucet, that was the only place where it was possible, for him to turn off the supply to Lacus' weapon.

And with one small look over at each other, the two girls hurried stormed of in the direction, where the outdoor faucet was located. Both of them hoping to capture Kira, before he could once again find away to escape them.

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Elsewhere Kira had just finished turning off the water to Lacus' garden hose.

Which meant that it would only be a matter of a very little time, before the two girls would show up to look for him. And even true he was already on his way over to the tool shed, that was located at the other end of the garden.

He knew that turning off Lacus' water supply, had only won him a few short moments of peace.

Which he was determined to use to get a weapon of his own, that was actually the reason why he was heading for the shed, the brown hair half soaked boy knew that there was extra garden hose hidden somewhere in there.

And if he could find that, there was another faucet just beside the shed.

And he need to have finished of this task, before the girls would once again turn on Lacus' water supply.

It wasn't long after that, before Kira reached his destination, where he immediately opened the door and went inside.

Once in there it only took him about a minute to find the yellow coloured garden hose, that had been laying in there since they bought the even longer one Lacus was running around with.

But if he stayed close to the shed he would surely be able to beat the two girls in this water fight.

He just wished that there was somebody around that could help him out, that certainly would make this whole battle a lot easier. And he wonder a few seconds what in the world Dearka was doing right now.

But knowing him, he properly hadn't even noticed what was going on, which pretty much meant that it was just him alone against the two girls.

That however did not mean that he was going to give up without a fight. Even true both Lacus and Mayu had seemed quite determined to give him a good cold wash down.

But if he could only get this garden hose up and running, he would at the very least have something to defend himself with.

Unfortunately he had just badly sat foot outside of the shed, before he heard a familiar voice alert his wife to his presence.

"THERE HE IS BIG SISSS LACUS! Lets hurry up and get him before he gets away again!" Mayu yelled loudly, already rushing full speed towards him, still holding on to the bucket, she had been carrying around ever since she had first decided to help his wife out, with her somewhat deadly assault on him.

And just the sight of Mayu coming at him with such great speed, was more then enough to make him turn around on one foot, and run off just as Lacus opened fire on him with her own weapon.

"Ha! you missed sweetheart, better luck next time!" Kira teased.

Just as he hurried ducked under her next attack, then took of away from the area, before any of the two women could try anything else, and still carrying the yellow garden hose over his left shoulder.

But even as he was escaping from them, Mayu and Lacus took a small glance over at each other.

"Big sis did you see what he had over his shoulder?" Mayu asked in a somewhat worried tone.

This certainly wouldn't be nearly as fun and entertain, if Kira succeed in getting a weapon on his own, the reason she had joined Lacus in this water fight was because the pink hair girl, had the most powerful weapon.

And that there was very little chance that she would get wet, but now that Kira had gotten a hold on the extra garden hose, there was really no telling who would win this.

But for now it was still Lacus that had the advantage, Kira might had found a weapon but he still need to find a place to get the water from, and as far as Mayu knew there wasn't any more faucets outside.

So it might be best to continue staying on Lacus side in this little war.

"Yes Mayu I saw it, this is getting serious we have to stop him now!" The pink hair girl said in a loud tone, as she tried to figure out where exactly her husband could have gone now.

He really couldn't be that far away they just had to find him, before he somehow found another source of water, and there was no way he could get that from outside of the house.

Which meant that there was only one place he could be right now, and that was inside the house most likely heading for the kitchen sink. And with that in mind Lacus turned and looked back at Mayu.

"I'm sure I know where he is Mayu, so lets get going!" The pink haired beauty said before she began making her way back towards the big house, with Mayu looking after her until she was almost out of sight.

"Perhaps it was a dumb idea for me to get involved in this" the brown hair girl said in a thoughtful tone.

But no matter what there was no way she was backing out now.

She surely was going to see this to the end, and with that in mind she hurried ran off after her big sister figure, still thinking hard about who exactly, was going to win this water fight.

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Meanwhile up on the house balcony.

Murrue was watching as her daughter and the two Yamato's was fighting their little war.

A small part of her was wondering if the married couple would ever get all the windows clean.

But seeing Mayu running around with that happy grin on her face, as she helped Lacus chase Kira down was all Murrue need to decide to let them play for as long as they want.

She truly did love seeing three of the most important people in her life, having so much fun, as they where having right now and there was just no way she was going to interfere in their little game.

And even if she did try to stop them, she was pretty certain that they would change their target over to her, and that was surely not something she wanted.

It was no secret that she had enjoyed the small pillow fight, they had been having just before they had started working around the house.

But Murrue had never really like fooling around with water all that much, unless she had her bathing suit on and they where down on the beach. Something she really wouldn't minded doing later today.

It could be quite nice, just laying there for a few hours and get a little sun on her back.

But the way things kept going now, it was highly unlikely she would get the time to do that, seeing as most of the people that was suppose to help out around the house, was busy doing other things.

Not that she blamed them, the temperature out there was way to high for any of them to get any work done. Even she and Mr Waltfeld was doing other things then what they had originally sat out to do.

She was standing out there keeping an eye out on the activity that was happening beneath her. And she had no idea about what the Desert Tiger was doing at this very moment.

But if she had to guess he was properly busy making some kind of new coffee, he always did that when he was bored and had nothing else to do.

Especially the last few days had been filled with new ideas about how to make the brown liquid taste even better then before.

And there was even a few that Murrue didn't like. But she already knew why the one eyed man, was mixing up even more strange tasting of coffee now then usual. It was most likely because, he was worried about everything that was happening around the world right now.

Not that Murrue could truthfully say that she was free of concerned. Just the attack on the Minerva, as it was leaving Orb, was more then enough to show that this was getting serious.

She just hoped with all of her heart, that things wouldn't turn out as bad as the last war.

She did however not get much time to wonder about that, before Andrew Waltfeld came walking up to her with a cup of coffee in each hand.

"Here you go, I hope you like it, I add a few things to really pull out the tasted!" Andy said, as he gave Murrue the right cup of the brown hot liquid he had made not long ago.

And after giving it a small blow to get some of the steam away, she took a light sip of the still hot brew, trying to figure out if this tasted better then the last time she had been drinking his experimental coffee.

"I like yesterday mix better, this one has way to long an after taste" Murrue explained in a thoughtful tone.

From time to time she just couldn't understand how in the would he could make something like coffee taste so peculiar. But there was also times where it could end up tasting really good, this however was not one of them.

"Hmm I'm going to have to work on that till tomorrow, I like it much better when you tell me that you like my coffee" Andy said, while taking a big mouthful from his own cup, truly enjoying the tasted of the brown somewhat strong liquid, as it disappeared down his throat.

The woman might not like this brew of coffee, but he kinda enjoyed it when it had a bit of a kick to it.

He was actually glad to know that he still had some of this left simmering back in his room, he was already looking forward to drink that later today.

But as for now he was happy just to stand there taking in the view at the house's big garden. "So who is winning?" He asked, as they saw Kira jump over a few bushes to escape from his wife and Mayu, that quickly followed him.

"It's hard to say, but Lacus and Mayu is surely in the lead" Murrue explained.

Smiling a bit about how silly her daughter looked when she went over the small bushes, but it did not take long before all three of them where out of sight again, but it was obvious that the horrifying battle was still going on down beneath the two of them.

They did however not talking any more about that, they just stood there in a deep silence.

Each of them thinking their own thoughts, it was only after a few very long minutes before Andy took another sip of his coffee, and began talking in a somewhat far away tone.

"I don't know about you, but I'm kinda worried about Orb's stand in all of this. I really do believe that Cagalli did everything to make sure, that Orb stayed out of the war, but politics of that caliber is just way to much for an eighteen year old girl to handle" Andy said.

Then took a small glance down in to his cup, a bit disappointed that there wasn't anything more to drink in it.

But it did not take long before he once again began talking, still using the same kind of voice as before. "And when the Seiran's are so determined to make sure that Orb joins the Earth Forces, there wasn't really much she could have done. Not that I blame her!" The man said, while putting his used coffee cup down on the railing, making extra sure that it wouldn't fall to the ground, he really didn't feel like cleaning up after that.

Thinking a bit about everything the one eyed man had just said Murrue finally let out a small sigh, as she took one more sip of her own coffee. "So what do you think we should do now. I mean now that Orb is a part of the Earth Forces wouldn't it be dangerous for Coordinators to be living down here?" Murrue asked in a worried tone, while looking down after her daughter, that was still playing around with the married couple.

She truly didn't want to lose any of them, they all meant so much to her, that it would break her heart if they where forced to go live back up at the Plants.

Especially if Mayu had to go.

If that where to happen there was no way she would ever forgive the Seiran's for forcing Orb to be a part of the Earth Forces, she didn't want to lose anymore of the people she loved and cared about.

Seeing the worried look the brown hair woman had on her face, Andy could easily guess what was bothering her.

"You don't have to be so worried, none of us is going anywhere. I already had a talk about this with the married couple and Dearka about this a few days ago, and none of them wants to leave this place" Andy said, smiling a bit about what they had told him when he asked them about it.

"Actually now that I'm really thinking about, I think Dearka's words sound somewhat like this. I'm not going anywhere without Miriallia, and if the Seiran's are going to try and drive me away from here, then they better be ready for a serious beating!" The man said.

Doing his best to imitated Dearka's voice, while truly glad to know that the boy was ready to fight if there was a need for it. He may not like the idea about having to fight people from Orb.

But if somebody who's loyalty was laying with the Seiran's, show their ugly mugs there, then they might just have to knock a few heads together, to get away from this place.

There was just no way in hell that he would let anybody here get capture, or something like that.

This was after all his family, and if somebody tried to ruin it, then they certainly had to be prepared to get a few scratch, and perhaps a blue eye or two.

Looking a bit at the Desert Tiger, Murrue could feel a small smile ran over her lips, she was truly happy to know that none of the Coordinators in the household was going to leave.

She wanted for all of them to continue being one small somewhat strange family. "I'm glad to know that Andy" she said in a far away tone, while once again taking in the lovely beautiful view from the balcony.

This really was a beautiful place to live, and she would truly hated it if they ever had to leave.

But as things looked now they could all continue peacefully living there for a very long time. Unfortunately she did not get much time to really think about it, before both of them heard a small scream from down below.

"Ahh why the heck do you guys have to get me mixed up in this!" Dearka asked in a loud tone, as he came walking slowly towards the house dripping wet from top to bottom and with a somewhat angry frown on his face.

Which was more then enough, to make both Murrue and Andy let out a few small chuckles, as they watched the boy disappear in to the garage, only to come out a few minutes later, with a bucket filled up with water.

Clearly ready to join in the fighting that was still going on.

"Of course you girls know this means war!" He said in a loud somewhat foolish voice.

As he hurried ran of in the same direction he had just showed up from, obviously hoping to find the two people over there, that had splashed him with water in the first place.

And it wasn't long after that before they both heard Lacus yell out that Dearka was back, and that he was helping out Kira now.

After that the only thing else they heard was a few more screams, as the battle went on between the two mobile suit pilots and the two girls.

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It was shortly after the water fight had ended.

And Kira and Lacus was now walking slowly back to their room, both of them where completely soaked, and it was obvious that Lacus was freezing a bit in her wet clothes.

But even with that, she still had a happy smile on her face, that made it clear that she had really been enjoying herself the last couple of hours.

And just knowing that she had been having fun was more then enough to make Kira smile a bit too. He truly did love it when the most important person in his life was this happy.

Not that Lacus was the kind of person to walk around with a mad frown on her forehead, mostly she always was in a good mood. But knowing that such a simple thing as a water fight made her this happy.

Kira was more then ready to have another water fight with her, no matter when she asked for it.

Even if it meant, that it had to be in the middle of the winter, then he was more then ready for it. Even true a small part of him seriously did hope she would never ask him to do that.

It was way to cold for his taste.

But one look over at her was more then enough to tell him, that something like that would never happen.

If she was this cold now, then there was no telling how much she would be freezing if they fought with water in the winter. But maybe a big snowball fight could be just as entertaining.

Dearka and him may not have won the battle against the girls.

But no matter what they had all been having fun, and a snowball fight was perhaps the way for them to get revenge against them, but he could always think about that when the snow actually began falling.

So while still thinking about that he slowly reached over and wrapped his right arm around Lacus' waist, pulling her close in an attempt to give her some of his body heat.

He really didn't want her to freeze to much if there was something he could do about it, luckily they where not all that far away from their room, once there she could take a long hot shower, and get warmed up again.

Feeling Kira's arm move around her like that, Lacus immediately snuggled in close to him, peacefully resting her head on his shoulder, as they continued walking side by side down the hall.

It wasn't long after that, before they arrived at the door to their room, where Kira hurried reached out and turn the doorknob, slowly pushing the door open and leading his wife inside.

Once in there, he gave the door a small kick so it flew back shut, after that he turned and looked in to Lacus' two lovely blue eyes.

"You better hurry Lacus and get out of those wet clothes, then I think it would be best that you take a long hot shower" Kira said, in a somewhat serious tone, as he slowly ran his hands up and down her back, trying his best to get some warm in to her slightly shivering body.

Hearing him say that, Lacus could help but smile a bit, as she took a small glance away from his eyes and down at him, which made it obvious that he too was freezing right now.

Which was more then enough to make her reach down, and slowly wrapped her fingers around her husband's hand, holding on to it in a tight grasp, as she again looked up in to his eyes.

"I do believe that we, have already waste more then enough water today Kira, so why don't the two of us spend some quality time together in the bathtub?" The pink hair girl asked, with a small yet naughty grin on her face.

Seeing that look Kira immediately knew, that she wanted more then just a little quality time together with him, not that he was going to complain.

Doing something like that was sure to warm both of them up in a hurry.

And with that in mind he quickly turned around and lead his lovely pink hair wife in to their bathroom. Where the very first thing he did, was reach out and turn on the hot water on the tub.

After that he once again turned his attention back to Lacus blue eyes, where he once more got reminded of how deep and beautiful they truly where. But even as he was doing that.

It did not take long before the young couple slowly moved in and brought their lips together, each of them kissing each other deeply as they reach out and began helping the one they loved out of their clothes.

Which meant that it did not take much time, before both of them where completely naked in front of each other.

And even true this was far from the first time they had seen each other like this, none of them could keep their eyes from slowly running down over the others body, before they once more looked up in to one anothers eyes, where the deep feelings they held for each other could clearly be seen.

And it was only a few very short seconds later, before Lacus slowly reached down and took a hold on Kira's hand.

After that she immediately began leading him over to the tub, where Kira climbed in first, then moved his hand out towards her, to help his beautiful wife get in, which meant that it wasn't much later before Lacus was resting comfortably on her husband lab.

While Kira slowly ran both of his hands up and down her arms a few times, until they made there way down to her nice little tummy.

Truly enjoying how soft and smooth her white skin was feeling, because of the bubble filled water.

And just the feeling his hands softly massage her stomach like that was all Lacus need to let out a light moan of enjoyment, as she slowly turned around on his lap and looked directly in to his purple eyes for a few brief moments.

Until they once more brought their lips together, each of them kissing each other passionately.

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Meanwhile back up at the Plants.

Athrun was in Gilbert Durandal's office, dressed in his new red Zaft uniform.

It really had been a long time since he had last been a member of Zaft.

And a small part of him couldn't help but feel a bit weird being in this kind of uniform once more. But he was pretty certain, that it wouldn't take him much time to get use to again.

But even as he was standing there waiting to hear what the Chairman and the fake Lacus had to say about this.

He was feeling a tiny bit uncomfortable.

The way Meer Campbell kept checking him out, really freaked him out and he was in a way happy that his fiancée was not around to see any of this, she would most definitely have strangled the poor pink haired girl by now.

"You look very handsome in that uniform Athrun!" Meer said in a somewhat seductive tone.

For some reason ever since she had meet this guy, she had liked him, he was just the kind of boyfriend she had always want. But much to her small irritation he really didn't seem all that interested in her, she had even taken the time to ask him out to dinner, but he had said no almost immediately.

Which in her eyes was a bit strange, she did after all look exactly like the real Lacus Clyne, and who in their right state of mind would not go on a date with her.

She was almost sure, that if she asked the next guy she meet he would say yes without even hesitating a second. But she certainly didn't want some random guy she just happened to run in to.

She wanted the blue hair man, that by now was busy talking with the Chairman about something.

And Meer was determined to get him, no matter the consequences, and with that decision made, she once again turn her attention back towards her future boyfriend and the Chairman.

Listening carefully to what they where saying to each other.

"I know that you are worried about Orb and the position it's taking. But for now I would like very much for you to join the Minerva, I have great expectation for that ship. I feel like it could possible do, what the Archangel did in the previous war!" Gilbert said.

Then thought briefly about where exactly the Archangel could be.

Truth be told he would actually like very much to get that ship out of the way as quickly as possible. But if he began asking Athrun about it now, he was certain that the boy might get suspicious, so he just had to wait until that ship made it's first move.

If the small squad of soldiers he had send to Orb not long ago, did not succeed in removing the two Yamatos from this world.

He just hoped that it wouldn't be long now, before the leader of that squadron would soon report back to him, with some good news.

But even as he was thinking about that he slowly made his way over to his desk, where he slowly reached down and picked up a small brown box, that had be standing there ever since Athrun arrived at his office.

"Take this with you too, I'm sure that you can get a lot of use out of it!" Gilbert said, while giving the young man the box.

Blinking a few times in confusion, Athrun slowly moved his free hand up and opened the box, where the very first thing he saw was small badges that looked very much like a white wing of some kind.

"But...but this is a FAITH badges!" Athrun said in a shocked tone, while he looked up at the Chairman with big eyes.

Seeing that Gilbert just gave Athrun a friendly smile.

"It's much easier this way Athrun. I'm certain you are already aware, that a few of the Council members are not overly delighted about having you back, and this was the best way for me, to handle that little problem" the man explained in his usual calm tone.

Hearing the man's reason to why he was making him a member of FAITH.

Athrun reached down and picked up the small medal from the box, then placed it on the right side of his uniform, after doing that he gave the Chairman a respectful salute.

"Thank you very much sir, I'm honoured" the blue haired teenager said in a serious tone, while once again lowing his hand.

"Well if there is nothing else sir, I think it's about time I got going" Athrun said, while taking a small glance over at the young woman in there.

The way she kept looking at him like he was a piece of meat, was really began to get on his nervous, and he was just about ready to run full speed out of the office.

Ever since he had first gotten to know the real Lacus he, had not once seen her with such a selfish expression on her face. And truth be told, it honestly didn't suit the normally kind and generous Lacus.

It was actually freaking him out a bit, which made him all the more keen on getting out of there in a hurry. And he was more then happy, when the Chairman told him that there was nothing more he need to discourse with him.

Which made Athrun nod a single time in understanding, as he reached down and pinked up his small black suitcase.

"Ok then I do believe that it would be best that I got on my way" the boy said, while giving the Chairman a short salute, before he turned and looked over at the pink hair girl that was still watching him, with that somewhat strange look on her face.

"It was very nice to meet you miss Campbell, maybe someday in the future, we will have the opportunity to talk a bit more with each other" he said in a polite tone.

Even true a small part of him, seriously didn't want anything to do with the bizarre copy of his former fiancée, and his best friends wife. But unfortunately she did not seem to get that at all.

She just gave him a big smile, as she moved over and tried to pull him in to a hug. "I hope so Athrun, maybe the next time we meet we can go out and get that dinner I asked you about!" The pink hair girl said in a loud excited tone, that made it clear for both of the men in the room, that she was really hoping that Athrun would say yes to her invitation.

Thinking a little about what he should say to her, Athrun gave her a small smile as he began talking to her in a slightly thoughtful tone.

"We will have to see about that miss Campbell. I kinda feel like both of us is going to be very busy the next few month, so we might not have the time for something like that. Now if you will pardon me, I want to hurry up and get back to earth as quickly as possible!" Athrun said, before he gave the pink hair woman a small bow.

Then turned around and left the room before Meer had the opportunity to say anything else to him.

Once out in the hall he immediately began making his way down to the Saviour's hangar.

And it wasn't long after that before he got to his destination, where he saw his new mobile suit waiting for him, there was a few guards over by the entrance to the cockpit.

But once they saw him coming towards them, they immediately stepped away. "Well good luck to you Zala!" The first one said in a loud tone, as they quickly left the hangar with Athrun looking after them until they where out of sight.

After doing that he turned and looked up in to the Saviour's two green eyes, while thinking about what exactly this mobile suit could do.

He might have been given this machine by the Chairman himself.

But he seriously didn't have any idea about what kind of weapons and speed the Saviour possessed. But he knew that this gundam, was going to be just as powerful as the Impulse, and the three stolen once.

Which meant that it was going to be a very interesting experience finding out everything the Saviour could do.

He was already looking forward to test the gundam out once he got out of the colony. And with that in mind he walked the rest of the way over to the open cockpit and got inside, where he immediately began powering up the mobile suit.

"Athrun Zala, Saviour heading out!" The blue haired boy yelled loudly.

Just as the now red gundam flew with full speed out of the giant colony, where Athrun hurried got the gundam over in it's mobile armor mode.

After doing that he slowly began increasing the speed, to see how fast the plane like mobile armor could go like this. But it was only a few seconds later before he again transformed in to the mobile suit mode.

Where he hurried ran a small check over what kind of weapons the Saviour gundam had.

"Hm pretty impressive. It kinda reminds me a bit about an upgrade version of the Aegis" Athrun mumbled to himself, while thinking a few seconds about his very first gundam.

But after shaking those thoughts away it did not take long. before the red mobile suit was once more over in armor mode, and flying full speed towards earth.

To be continued.

Hey guys I want to thank you all for reading and reviewing, I'll see all of you next time.


	14. Chapter 14

I'm sorry that this chapter took so long.

But I have been sick the last two weeks. And I can't really concentrate properly on writing, when I feel like something the cat wouldn't even bother taking the time to drag in.

I'm sure that some of you guys out there can relate to that.

Chapter 14

It was a few hours after the married couple had finished having fun in their bathroom.

Both of them where now sleeping peacefully in each others arms, they had both been quite exhausted from both the big water fight, and what else they had been doing today.

So once they had gotten comfortable over on their bed, it had not take them much time to drift of to sleep.

Actually everybody living in the house was pretty much turned in for the night.

Which meant that none of them noticed the about twenty five men, slowly coming out of the quiet ocean, all of them dressed in a completely black diving suits. It only took them a few minutes then they where all standing up on the beach.

Looking up at the big house that was located not that far away from them.

And once they where sure that nobody had noticed their arrival, they instantly pulled of their diving goggles and throw them down on the sand, after that the oxygen cylinders was dropped from their backs, then the flippers was placed down by the rest of the diving equipment.

After doing that each of them pulled out a machine rifle and began getting them ready to fight.

"Ok let's go guys, if we are lucky they wouldn't notice us until it's too late, and make sure to kill everybody in there, we don't want to leave any witness' now!" The leader of the bunch said in a serious tone, while taking one more look up at the house to make sure that the light was still turned off.

Once he was sure that everything up there was still somewhat peaceful, he hurried began making his way towards the house, with the rest of his squadron following closely behind him.

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Meanwhile in the living room of the house.

Dearka was fast asleep on the couch with a thick red blanket over him, he had end up falling asleep there while watching the late night movie.

But even true he was quite far away in dreamland.

He slowly opened up both of his eyes and just laid there looking up at the ceiling for a small minute, for some reason he couldn't help but feel like something was not right, that something strange was going on.

And when he suddenly heard Haro's voice from down the hall he quickly throw the blanket away and took a small look over at the big watch that was hanging over on the wall, where he saw that it was slowly approaching three a clock.

"Damn, couldn't they have shown up a little early?" He muttered angrily to himself, as he began carefully making his way back to his room, where he had a few things hidden away, making extra sure to keep away from the windows.

He hadn't gotten very far before he ran in to miss Murrue and Waltfeld.

"Hey what's going on?" Dearka asked in a quite tone, while taking a small look over towards the closed window.

It was getting more and more obvious that somebody was out there, and that they where clearly trying to find away in to their home, which was not something Dearka liked.

It was Andy that answered the boy's question.

"I have no idea about who the heck they are, but they got nothing to do here, so hurry up and get your gun Dearka!" Andy said in a serious tone, before he turned around and ran off down the hall, obviously planing to make this a very painful experience for whoever was creeping around out there.

Seeing the man run off like that Murrue immediately turned her attention over towards the former Buster pilot, that was also looking after the Desert Tiger.

But once he felt her eyes on him he took one look over at her.

"Just wait here captain, I'll be right back" Dearka said, as he quickly disappeared in to his room, only to show up a few seconds later now armed with a gun in his right hand and a Uzi in the other.

Happy to know that the boy was ready to fight Murrue immediately took off towards her daughter's room.

But she did not get very far before Dearka began opening fire out of the window, clearly trying to stop one of the people out there. But it was only when he used the small machine gun, that he succeed in putting a few holes in the back of whoever the person was.

It was just about that time Mayu stepped out of her room and took a small glance around.

"Mom! What's happening out here?" She asked in a obvious scared tone, as Murrue quickly moved over to her and made sure that she wasn't an easy target for whoever those men outside of the house was.

"You go get Kira and Lacus, captain! I'll make sure to keep the bastards away!" Dearka said in a loud tone, as he again began shooting of his hand gun at one of the men out there.

But this time he was forced to take cover when the man he was shooting after began firing back, that however did not stop the boy for long and it only took a brief moment then he was once more trying to take the guy out.

Knowing that Dearka was more then capable of keeping those guys busy at least for a few minutes Murrue hurried reached down and took Mayu's hand in a tight grasp, then began pulling her along the rest of the way to the married couple's room.

Once there she immediately reached out and opened the door, and quickly dragged her daughter with her in to the room.

Once in there she hurried took a quick look around, to make certain that there was nobody else in there, other then Kira and Lacus that was still sleeping peacefully over on their bed.

Seeing that they where the only once presence in there, Murrue dropped Mayu's hand and walked the rest of the way over to the resting couple, where she instantly bent down and began shaking each of them.

"Wake up you two!" She called out in a loudly.

Now that they where in a soundproof room, she didn't care about how much noise she was making, there was simply no way those men out there could hear them in there.

But even true Murrue was speaking in such a high tone, neither Lacus or Kira showed any kind of movement Kira just rolled over and tighten his grip on Lacus.

And even true Murrue would normally have found that cute it frustrated her a great deal right now.

She was getting very worried about Dearka that was all by himself out in the halls, there was just no telling how long the boy could keep those men back, but she did however not get much time to think about that before Mayu ran with full speed towards the bed.

"GERONIMOOO!" The girl yelled as loud as she possible could, while she jumped towards the bed where she land almost on top of the sleeping couple.

And it did not even take a second before she was jumping up and down on the bed yelling loudly for them to wake up every single time her small feet made a big impact on the mattress they where sleeping on.

Which meant that it did not take very long, before they both opened their eyes.

And took a look up at the person that was making so much noise just beside them. And once they noticed that it was Mayu, that was apparently trying to make their bed fall straight down through the floor.

They both sat up and was just about to ask what she was doing in there, when the door to the room got slammed open and they all saw Dearka step inside.

"I can't hold them back much longer, we have to get going NOW!" The boy said while taking a quick look around the room, a small part of him feeling a bit annoyed that married couple was still not out of that bed yet.

But just as he was about to yell out for them to hurry up, the door to the room flew open once more and it was only a half second later, before Murrue fired of a few shoots directly in to the head of whoever the man was.

Seeing something like that happening, was more then enough to wake Kira and Lacus up completely.

"Damn, what the heck is going on?" Kira asked, as he reached down and picked up some of his clothes that had been laying on the floor since yesterday.

After that he turned and looked over at the three other people in the room, where he hurried explained to them that they where both naked under the cover.

Hearing what exactly the problem was, Murrue hurried reached out and took a hold on both Mayu and Dearka then dragged both of them along with her out of the room, so the married couple could get what little time they need to get some clothes on.

And it didn't even take a minute, before they came out of their chamber both of them now fully dressed.

Happy to know that they could finally get going, Murrue was just about to say something to them, when suddenly two more of those dark clad men showed up.

But just before Dearka or Murrue could even get their weapons ready to fire, two shoots could be heard from behind the two men, and it didn't even take a second before both of them where laying dead on the floor.

"I'm glad that you guys are all right, now lets get moving!" Andrew said in a angry tone, just as he throw Haro over to Lacus.

He knew how much the small robot meant to the pink hair girl, so once he had spotted him jumping around by the entrance of the kitchen, he had immediately taken the little noise maker along.

But it had been kinda hard to fight carrying something like that around, so he was more then happy to have both hands free again.

Truly happy to have Haro back, Lacus quickly thanked the one eyed man.

Just as one more of the dark clad soldiers showed his ugly mug, but before he could even get one shot of, he was taken out by a combined attack from Dearka and the Desert Tiger.

"Let's hurry and get down to the shelter, before any more of them can show up!" Lacus said in a slightly concerned tone, as she tighten the grip she had on both Haro and Kira's hand.

And with that they all began making there way down the hall, doing their best to keep away from the windows, luckily the big goon patrol outside didn't think that far ahead.

Which of course was something both Andy and Dearka was quick to used to their advantage, they kept on trying to take the morons out there down, every time they caught a brief glinted of them.

"Damn it there sure is a lot of them!" Dearka courses with a angry glimmer in both of his eyes, as quickly throw the now empty machine gun away, and reloaded the gun with a new round of ammunition, then fired of a few shoots out of a window the Desert Tiger had destroyed a few seconds later, doing his best to hit one of the guys out there that was trying to hide behind a tree.

But that was hard seeing as it was still pitch black out there and the unknown soldier did everything he could to stay hidden behind that damn tree.

Thankfully he kept him busy like that, Andy had more then enough time to plant a bullet or two in to the neck of the cowardly bastard, which immediately made him collapse out there.

Seeing that it did not even take a minute, before two former Zaft soldiers, had found a new target to shoot at.

And while they where doing that, Kira began talking in a loud tone, still doing everything to make sure to keep both Lacus and Mayu covered incase any more of the black dressed goons would show up.

But one small look at miss Murrue that was walking directly in front of them, was all he need to know that she was keeping a very close eye on anything that was not suppose to be in there.

"You are right Dearka, but I can't help but think about, is who the heck are those guys?" Kira said, while taking a short glance up at Dearka that was still busy firing his gun out of the window, obviously trying his best to keep the still approaching soldiers out there, away from their home, that by now was fill by a lot of nice holes from the machine rifles, the trigger-happy bastards out there was armed with.

Hearing the boy say that Andy hurried took a look over at him, where he saw that he was holding on to both Lacus and Mayu clearly planing to protect the two of them no matter what.

"I do have a hunch about who they are, but I really don't think this is the right time to talk about it, get down!" He yelled loudly, while quickly ducking out of the way, just as a rain of bullets came flying in through the window.

Once that got to a hold they continued the rest of the way to where the shelter was located in the house, fortunately for all of them they did not have much distance to travel before they arrived at their destination.

"It doesn't look like anybody is here!" Murrue said, while she began working on getting the door open, but she had just badly finished that sentence when a few more bad guys show up and began shooting at them.

"You spoke to soon captain!" Dearka yelled out in a angry tone, as he and Andrew Waltfeld began shooting back at the still attacking fools.

But what none of them noticed while they busy fighting, was that there was another soldier presence, that by now was slowly aiming his deadly weapon, at the pink haired woman, who was standing almost beside her husband.

But just before the soldier that was hiding out in the ventilation system could press down on the trigger. Haro jumped up from the floor and began yelling loudly at the strange man.

"I WILL NOT ACCEPT THAT!" The small robot yelled, making Lacus reach out to take a hold on the machine. But just as her hand was about to close around Haro.

Kira noticed the man aiming at his wife, seeing that he didn't even hesitate a second in running full speed towards her.

"LACUS!" He shouted loudly.

Just as he jumped forward and knocked her over, just as a single deadly bullet flew in and hit the floor where she had been standing only a half second ago, before Kira had pushed her out of the way.

But even true Kira was deeply relieved that he had been able to reach her in time.

He did not release her from the secure embrace he was holding her in, there was just no telling if the crazy bastard inside the ventilation system was going to fire at her again.

And it was only when he was completely certain that miss Murrue and Dearka had taken the man out, that he released the hold he had on her.

And got back up on his feet where he immediately reached down towards her to help her up, seeing him do that Lacus hurried grasped on to his hand.

As Kira pulled her along with him in to the shelter, where Mayu was already waiting for them with Haro sitting on her lap. And it only took a small minute, then everybody else was in there too, which meant that it did not take long before the two heavy doors flew shut once more.

"Damn that was tough!" Dearka breathed out as he dropped down to the floor.

Just sitting there trying to get some much needed air back down to his lungs, while at the same time looking around at the rest of them in there.

Kira was standing there with both of his arms wrapped around Lacus, so his hands where resting on her stomach, which he was slowly rubbing in a gentle way.

While miss Murrue was over beside Mayu talking calmly to her, obviously trying her best to ensure the small brown haired girl that everything was going to be ok and that there was no way those men out there could get in to this shelter.

Hearing that Mayu lifted her head away from Haro and looked up in to her mother's eyes, where she asked the one thing Kira had asked about a little while ago.

"Mom who where those men, and why did they have to destroy our home like this?" The girl asked holding on to Murrue's arm in a tight grib to make sure that she was there with her right now.

In all of Mayu's life she couldn't remember ever being this frightened before. It really had been terrible, especially when that one guy had tried to murder big sister Lacus.

And when she had seen Kira ran at her like that, she was afraid that the bullet was going to hit him in the back.

But much to Mayu's big relief, big brother Kira had been able to save both Lacus and himself from getting killed by that awful man, that had been crawling around in the ventilation system.

And just thinking about that was enough to make Mayu stand up again and run over to Lacus, which she immediately wrapped both of her arms around holding on to her tightly.

"I'm so happy that you are safe big sis!" Mayu said, as a few tears left her eyes and ran down her cheeks.

Seeing that, Lacus hurried dropped down and embraced Mayu, telling her that everything was going to be all right, and that she had nothing to worry about.

Seeing that Murrue couldn't help but smile a bit as she turned and looked back at Andy that was leaning up against the wall, also trying to relax after the short yet violent battle they had just been in.

"Those guys are Coordinators!" Murrue said, not once taking her eyes away from the Desert Tiger that slowly lift his head and looked right back at her.

"Yeah and they are not amateurs, those guys have definitely seen combat before!" Andy said, while thinking about how well organized those men had been fighting, and the weapons they had been using was clearly from a Zaft special unit.

He just wonder who the heck had ordered this. If those guys really was from Zaft, then it had to be one of the high-ups, but who?.

It was just about that time Kira moved his eyes away from Mayu and his wife, slowly turning his attention over towards Dearka and Andy that was standing beside each other.

Both of them obviously trying hard to figure out who those men where.

"So what you are saying is that those men where from Zaft, but what in the world are they doing here?" The brown hair boy asked in a angry tone, while thinking about how close those dark clad men had been in killing the woman he loved.

Looking over at the boy for a second or two Andy slowly lift his head, and took a glance over at Lacus that was still busy hugging and talking with Mayu that was still shaking slightly after everything they had been through.

Not that anybody could blame the little girl, but after watching them for a brief moment, he again turned his gaze back to Kira.

"From what I could understand those fellows out there where going after her!" Andy said while giving a small nod in Lacus direction.

Which was more then enough to make both Kira and Dearka look over at the pink hair girl, and just as the husband of the girl was about to ask why in God's name they where trying to get Lacus.

Dearka took a single step closer towards the Desert Tiger, with a deep angry frown on his forehead.

He did not understand why anybody would want to murder such a kind person as Lacus, she was one of Miriallia's best friends, and Dearka would surely be lying, if he said he did not care about her too.

She was always such a kind person that was so easy to get along with, and the few double dates Miriallia and him had gone out on with the two Yamato's had been quite fun.

And that's why it really made his blood boil that somebody was trying to kill one of his best friends wife, and if they tried to get in here he was surely going to beat the crab out of them, that much was certain.

"But why the heck would they want to kill her, she hasn't done anything to anybody?" Dearka asked, not bothering at all to hide how much this was pissing him of.

"That's a very good question you two, and I'm sorry but I don't have an answer!" Andy said in a far away tone, as he slowly walked over to get one of the water bottles that had been hidden away in there, fighting those gentlemen out there had really made him thirsty and he was determined to get something to drink before anything else could happen.

Thinking a bit about what Mr Waltfeld had just told them, Kira got a deep thoughtful frown on his face as he looked down at the floor, trying to come up with an idea about what they should do now.

It was not like they could stay down there for the rest of their lives. But there was just no telling how long those men was planing to wait for them to come out, if they where even going to do that.

They might just try and force their way in there.

And if they did something like that, then Kira really didn't think they could hold them back any longer unless they used that other thing that was down here. And even true he seriously didn't like the idea of activating that again, he had already shown more then once in the last war.

That was more the willing to do everything to protect the people he cared about.

And that had certainly not change, since the last time he used the very thing that had been hidden down here for so long. But a small part of him could not help but hope, that those men out there wouldn't try anything else to hurt them.

And with those thoughts running through mind, he slowly walked over and sat down beside Lacus, that immediately leaned in and rest her head on his right shoulder, which made Kira slowly wrap his arm around her holding her tightly.

But even as they where sitting there beside each other, Lacus slowly lifted her gaze and looked up in to Kira's eyes.

Up until now, she had been so busy trying to calm Mayu down, that she hadn't heard a single thing of what the three men in there had been talking about before. But she did of course have her own suspicion about what objective those black dressed men had.

"Kira those men, they where after me right?" She asked in a small tone, that was just loud enough for everybody else in there to hear it.

Not that any of them noticed that.

Kira just sat there looking down at her for a few seconds, he could easily tell from her expression, that she really wanted a reply to her question. But just as Kira was about to tell her that she was properly right in her assumption about what those men where here for.

A giant explosion shook pretty much the entire fundament.

"Ahhhh damn it! Now they are using mobile suits!" Dearka cursed loudly as they all made their way in to the in deeper chamber, as the shelter shook violently behind them just the door flew shut again.

So now they where trapped in a room with a enormous gate in front of them.

Yet before any of them could say anything to that, another earthquake like tremor shook the ground one more time, making all of them grab on whatever they where close to.

But once the tremors stopped again Murrue lift her head and looked over at Andrew Waltfeld with a somewhat panicky look in both of her eyes, as she sat there on the floor holding on to Mayu that by now was crying softly in to her shoulder.

"What in the world do you think they got up there?" The brown hair woman asked, while taking a short glance up at the ceiling, feeling a bit worried that the entire shelter would collapse on top of them.

That was seriously not that way she wished to join Mu in heaven. And one small glance around at everybody else in there, was enough for her to know that they pretty much all felt like that.

"I really have no idea about what they have up there and how many there is, but if they continue blasting away like that, it wouldn't be long before they get in here!"

The one eyed man said, while he too took a quick glance up at the ceiling, wondering just how much more it could take, before the soldiers out there would break through the thick walls of the shelter.

So after thinking about that a bit longer he hurried turned his attention over towards the married couple, that at this very moment was standing together in the middle of the room, holding on to each other in a tight embrace.

"Lacus do you have the keys on you? We need to open the gate before we end up getting killed in here, without fighting back!" Andy yelled just as a small part of the ceiling fell to the floor.

Hearing the man asked her that, Lacus got a somewhat frightened expression on her face as she first looked a few seconds at the gate, then over at Kira trying her best to make up her mind about what she should do.

She really didn't want to give Kira the keys. If she did that, she knew that he was going to use what had been hidden behind the gate for such a long time now.

"I.....I.....we can't do that.....I mean it's not right!" Lacus said in a sad tone, while looking down at the floor, with a single tear leaving her right eye, and running slowly down her cheek before it fell to the floor.

Not that anybody saw that, all of them where pretty much looking at the pink hair girl waiting impatiently for what else she was had to say about this.

The only one that actually noticed that she was crying now was Kira, and truly hated to see her like this, he took a single step towards her and once again pulled her in to a hug.

"Please give me the keys Lacus, I'll open the gate!" Kira told her in a soft tone, while another big tremor ran through the shelter.

Not that any of them gave that much of their attention, they where all busy looking at the married couple, as the two of them continued talking softly with each other.

"But.....but.....Kira I don't want you to go through all of those things again, I mean you went through so much pain in the last war" Lacus sobbed quietly while squeezing herself as close to the one she loved as possible.

She almost felt like that if she removed her arms from him now she was going to die.

But when she felt both of his hands slowly being placed on her shoulders.

It did not take long before she could see both of his completely determined eyes looking down in to her blue eyes, and before she could even think of anything else to say to him.

Kira gently moved his right hand over to her cheek, which he began caressing softly in a sweet way.

"It's all right Lacus, I'm fine with it, I need to do this to make sure you and everybody else is safe!" The brown hair man said, while his hand slowly made it's way up to her soft long silky like hair, slowly running his hand through it a few times, as he stood there looking down in to her downcast eyes.

"But....Kira....I don't want you to....." that was pretty much all she got out.

Before Kita slowly moved both of his arms down around her, embracing her in a sweet gentle way, that would most likely have made everybody else in there smile a bit, if the circumstance hadn't been so dire.

None of them did anything as they stood there watching the two Yamatos, as Kira once more began talking to Lacus in the same gentle manner as before.

"You don't have to be so worried Lacus, I really want to do this, I want so much to protect you my sweet love, so please give me the keys?" Kira said, while again letting his hand run down over her hair.

Hearing him say that Lacus looked at him a few seconds longer, as a few more tears left her eyes.

But just as Kira was about to reach up and remove them.

The pink hair girl slowly moved away from the embrace, and walked slowly over to where Mayu was sitting with Haro and after looking at her little sister figure a minute or two she bent down and pinked up Haro.

And after looking at her little friend for a bit, she slowly moved her hand up, and opened the normally noisy robot up in to it's control panel, where two small keys was waiting for her.

And without saying a single word she reached up and carefully removed them from inside Haro before she closed him once more, and handed him back to Mayu who was looking at her with two curious eyes.

Not that Lacus gave the small girl all that much attention, she was far more busy watching the two keys. And it was only when another piece of the ceiling fell to the floor, that she turned around and handed Kira the two items.

"Kira....." she called out in a trembling voice, just as he slowly reached out and took both of the objects from her out stretched hands.

"Thank you Lacus" the boy said, just as he turned around and walked over to Mr Waltfeld where he immediately gave the Desert Tiger one of the keys.

Who took it without saying anything back, after that they slowly made their way over to the place where the keys where suppose to fit in. And once over there, they both took one small look over at each other just as Andy slowly counted down from three to one.

Which was the sign for each of them to turn their keys and make the enormous gate slowly glide open, which meant that it did not take much time before everybody gather in there could see a certain well know mobile suit being revealed.

And without saying anything, Kira began making his way towards the Freedom gundam, that kinda looked like it was actually observing it's pilot with it's two huge yellow eyes.

Not that it was the only one doing that, Lacus kept looking after him until the gate once again glide shut behind him. "Kira..." the pink hair girl called out in a sad tone, not once removing her eyes from the gate.

As she stood there thinking about what the person she loved so much was about to do. She truly disliked the idea that her so sweet and caring husband once more had to get in front of the Freedom's controls.

She knew better then most people how much pain and sadness piloting the Strike and Freedom had brought Kira in the last war. And she had deeply hoped with all of her heart, that he would never have to experience something like that ever again.

She did however not get long to think about that before somebody placed a hand on her left shoulder.

Which was all that was need to make her turn her sad gaze away from the giant gate and at the person behind her, where she saw miss Murrue smiling sadly at her, as she gave her shoulder a light gentle squeeze.

"We have to get out of here now Lacus, I really don't think the shelter can take much more of this!" Murrue told the girl in a serious tone.

That made Lacus nod a single time in agreement, while they hurried walked over to the rest of the people, that looked like they where more then ready to leave the shelter and head outside.

Hopefully Kira would be able to take everything that was out there down, before any of the enemy mobile suits out there could noticed that they where now outside of the shelter.

Unfortunately none of them got much time to worry about that before the rest of the ceiling began falling to the floor.

"Hurry up and go, they have just gotten through the wall!" Andy yelled in a loud tone, as he quickly shut the door to the elevator that would take them to the surface.

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Meanwhile back in the Freedom Kira was busy looking everything over to make sure that the gundam would fly the way he wanted it.

And after a few minor seconds he slowly reached out and activated the Phase Shift armor, making all the cables that was attached to the Freedom fall to the floor.

After that he let out a small sigh, as he once more got his mobile suit moving after two long years of being hidden away down here.

"Lets go old friend!" He mumbled in a determined tone, as he lifted the beam rifle and fired two shoots up at the ceiling, after doing that he flew full speed straight up using the two plasma cannons to break through the rest of the metal ceiling.

Which meant that it did not take long before the Freedom was hanging far up in the air looking down at the nine strange looking mobile suit, that was walking around the sad remains of what had once been their home.

And one small glance at them, was all Kira need to tell that those machine was made by Zaft, not that he had any idea about what they might be called.

But for some reason he couldn't help but think that those mobile suits looked kinda out of place up on land.

It was after all obvious just by looking at the machines, that they where a new and more powerful version of the GOOhN and ZnO.

Not that Kira cared much about that, he need to take those things down before they could do any more damage to the area, and with that in mind he hurried got over in to seed mode, just as two of the green mobile suits down there began shooting up at him.

But before the attacks could even get close to him, Kira got the Freedom moving again, and hurried flew full speed down towards the water type mobile suits.

That clearly tried their very best to stop him, but Kira had no trouble at all evading every single beam the mobile suits was firing after him.

And even while doing that he quickly pulled out the right beam saber, then flew full speed at the nears enemy machine, which was obviously enough to get whoever was inside the green mobile suit to panic a bit.

Which was shown by the way it began backing away from him.

But Kira made sure that it didn't get very far before he slammed the beam saber out and cut of both of the legs on the mobile suit, after that he got the Freedom up side down and used the two plasma cannons to destroy the legs on the next one that was just about to attack him.

After doing that he flew full speed directly up, where he quickly rolled to the side to avoid getting hit by the attack from another one of the Zaft mobile suits, once he was sure that there was no way they could hit him he hurried shoot of all the Freedoms weapon down towards the green war machines.

And even true they obviously did everything possible to evade his rain of beams. It only took a few seconds, then three more of the Zaft mobile suit was laying on the ground clearly unable to fight any longer in this battle.

And to make sure that the rest of the enemy pilots didn't have any time to noticed that the rest of the household who was watching the battle from a hilltop not that far away.

Kira hurried took aim with the beam rifle and fired of two beams down at one of the water type mobile suits, taking out first the head and then the right legs, making it fall to the ground with a tremor.

Which was enough to make the last two turned around and fire of all their weapons, but even as they where doing that Kira made extra sure that the direction the Freedom was in was away from the others.

So his friends and family wouldn't somehow get hit by accident, but while the two mobile suits continued firing pretty much every single weapon they had up at him.

Kira easily maneuvered the Freedom in and out between the attacks, and after doing that for a minute or two he was so close to the green mobile suits that he gave one of them a hard kick in it's chest area.

Making it fall down almost beside one of the other mobile suits and before it could even try and get up again Kira had taken out both it's arms and it's legs, after that he slowly turned and looked back at the last one.

"Who the heck are you guys, and why did you try and kill Lacus?" Kira asked in a slightly angry tone out over the radio.

But the only answer he got, was the sound of the enemy pilot trying to get some air back down in to his lungs. And it was only when Kira yelled out for the man to give him a reply, that the person inside the green mobile suit began talking in a somewhat hysterical tone.

That made it very clear to Kira, that this guy had no intention of given him any kind of reply to his question, and that he was still more then ready to fight.

"Ha! I'm not going to tell you anything you little brat, I'm taking you out right NOW!" The man yelled loudly, as he charge full speed forward with the beam claw out, quite clearly determined to put that weapon through the Freedoms cockpit.

But before the attack even got near the gundam, Kira made a quick moved to the side, where he immediately used the right foot to actually trip the big green mobile suit over, so it fell face down in to the ground.

"Tell me who send you guys?" Kira demand in a loud tone, just before he shoot the right arm of the enemy machine.

But there was still no answer from the Zaft pilot, he only muttered out a few courses as he got the one armed mobile suit back up on it's feet where he hurried lifted the one remain arm which made it obvious that he was still intending to fight.

But before he could even get one shoot of, Kira fired the beam rifle again, this time taking of the left arm on the enemy mobile suit, then the two missile launchers it had on it's back.

And before the water type mobile suits could even take a single step away from him, Kira removed both of it's legs too, making the last of the machines smash to the ground, beside all the other disabled mobile suits.

"Now give me some answers!" The boy demand in a loud tone.

While trying to make the Freedom look as threatening as possible, even true he had honestly no intention of hurting any of the enemy pilots there, he just want them to tell him what he wanted to know.

He did however not get any kind of reply, actually none of them said a single word to him now. He just heard one of them course him a bit, which made him take one step closer to all the wrecked mobile suits.

But before he had the opportunity to ask any more questions, the very last one he had disabled blow up in a loud explosion that was followed shortly after by all the other mobile suits that began blowing up.

And even true all of those men, had tried to kill the most important person in his life, he was still completely shocked that they prefer to do something like this, instead of continuing living their lives.

He was pretty sure that all of them had friends and family back home at the Plants. So he truly didn't understand why they would want to leave them in such a terrible way as this.

But even as he was sitting there thinking about that Birdy suddenly jumped out from his inside pocket and land carefully on his right shoulder, which made him turn and take a short glance over at his small robot bird.

Before he once more looked down at all the destroyed mobile suits parts, that was spread around the Freedom gundam.

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At the same time not that far away from him, everybody else was watching as the Freedom just stood there in between all the now completely wrecked up mobile suits.

All of them had a somewhat sad look on their face, as they where all thinking their own thoughts about everything they had just been through.

But even true all of them up there knew that they had a lot to talk about after this, there was no movement from any of them.

There was just so many things going through their minds right now.

Murrue was feeling somewhat sad that it had end up like this, she had sincerely hoped that they could avoid having to use the Freedom again.

She knew how tough a time Kira had been having using that mobile suit two years ago, especially when he had been going up against Rau Le Creuset and the Providence.

But even as she stood there thinking about that she suddenly heard her daughter call out Kira's name.

Which made her slowly kneel down and embrace her little girl holding her tightly, as she kept watching the Freedom and thinking about the person that was inside the white and blue mobile suit.

But even true she was quite far away in her own thoughts, she could still hear Dearka mumble out a few words.

"This has got to be the first time since she left that, I'm glad that Miriallia isn't home!" The former Buster piloted muttered, out in a small yet depressed tone

As he slowly sat down on the ground not once taking his purple eyes away from the Freedom, that still haven't moved from it's spot between all the destroyed water type mobile suits.

He truly was relieved that his girlfriend hadn't been around for all of this, it really had been a horrifying experience.

And he was deeply relieved that none of them had gotten hurt or something even worths.

He just hoped that there wasn't anymore bad guys hiding out somewhere out in the ocean. But if they had just a little brain in the heads, they would most likely retreat to avoid having to do battle against the Freedom.

It really didn't take a genius to see that if anything else showed up, they would pretty much get their ass' hand over to them.

But what Dearka didn't noticed while he was busy thinking about the girl he loved and everything all of them had just been through, was that Andrew Waltfeld was busy looking at the picture of his dead wife.

While thinking about why those bastards had to completely ruin their home, couldn't they have found a much less destructive way to try and break in to the shelter, did those guys really have to destroy everything.

But a single look around the area was all he need to find a reply to his own question, and even true it did make him angry that they had to go this far.

He just couldn't help but be happy that they woke up in time to fight back. If those men had gotten in to the house without any of them noticing it, they would surely all have been dead now.

"Damn, I had really hoped to have a nice little conversation with one of those guys!" Andy said, as he once more closed up the small silver locket that he was always carrying around his neck, then he slowly lifted his head and took a small look around at the others, where he could quite easily tell that the others was just as sad and depressed about this as he was.

Which was more the enough to make him sigh loudly a single time, while he turned his attention down towards the ground, still trying his best to make some sense of everything that had happened.

But even true they all felt pretty low spirited right now. The one who felt worths was no doubt Lacus.

She just stood there watching the Freedom with a truly tearful expression on her face, she still couldn't believed that the one she loved had once more been forced to get in to a mobile suit, and it had all been to defend her, from those black dressed men.

That however did not change the fact, that a small part of her kinda wished that somebody else could have used the Freedom.

But she already knew that there was nobody else around that could use that gundam as well as Kira, he pretty much had the OS sat up in such a way, that he was the only one who could use it properly.

But even knowing something like that, did nothing to ease the deep sadness she was feeling right now.

And the pink haired girl knew that the only thing in this whole world that could make her feel better right now, was the one she loved so much.

And she really had to fight hard not to race full speed down to the Freedom, and just wait for him to come out of the gundam.

There was however no way she could do that, it was way to dangerous for her to be running around all those destroyed mobile suits, there was no way of telling if there was anything else on the machines that could blow up at any moment now.

So she just had to wait up there on the hill until Kira came out of the Freedom, but it really didn't look like he was planing to move for a while.

He was most likely in shock over seeing those men self-destruct like that, not that she could blame him. He had always been so careful, not to hurt the people he was fighting.

Yet those men had commit suicided without even giving it a second thought, and she knew without a doubt, that this had been a pretty hard experience not just for him, but for all of them gather there on the hill.

"Kira!" The girl mumbled out in a truly sad tone, while her long pink hair continued blowing around her face in the soft morning wind.

Not that Lacus gave it much of her attention, she just couldn't remove her two depressed eyes from the Freedom.

As she continued standing there, hoping deeply that it would not be long, before Kira got out of the white mobile suit. She desperately wanted to be in her husband's arms now, and just stay there until the end of time, never letting go of him ever again.

To be continued.

I'll see you guys next time.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

It was a few hours after the attack on Lacus and the rest of the household.

Not that Cagalli knew anything about that, she was still laying somewhat peacefully in a bed looking up at the ceiling, with a small yet angry frown on her forehead.

Today was the day that Orb was suppose to officially join force with the Earth Alliance, and even true Yuna really had tried hard to convince her, that this was the best decision Orb could take.

Cagalli was still very sceptical about the whole thing, but what was actually pissing the young woman of so much right now, had really nothing to do with Orb.

Today was also the day Yuna want for her to marry him, and there was just no way in hell she was going to do that.

She would rather drown herself somewhere, then being stuck with that moron for the rest of her life.

She just hoped that she could get out of there before her so call 'wedding' could begin. She already had an idea about how to leave the mansion if there was a need for it, she only hoped that Myrna was ready to help her out when the time came, and the way things was going now Cagalli had little to no doubt, that it would not be long now, before she was forced to leave her own country.

Something she deeply hated to do, but it was becoming more and more obvious for her, that she was running out of options fast, she tried pretty much everything to make sure that Orb continued staying the peace loving nation it had been in the past.

But unfortunately she didn't have nearly as much influence as her father had.

She was pretty sure that he would most likely had found someway to make sure that Orb stayed neutral, but no matter how hard she tried she just couldn't get the other politicians to listen to reason.

The last one she had tried to talked with, had been so damn busy congratulating her on her upcoming wedding with the big moron, that Cagalli had been more then ready to give the idiot a good beating before she had left his room.

"Damn it, why the heck does all of this have to be so damn hard" the girl quietly cursed to herself, as she slowly turned her attention away from the ceiling and over towards the wall, still thinking hard about everything she knew she was about to do in just a short while, and she just sincerely hope that her little scheme would run smoothly.

If it didn't she might just end up being Cagalli Yula Seiran.

"What a completely disgusting thought!" The blond girl said, while she slowly sat up in the bed and took a small look around the room, it was a much more luxurious then her old chamber.

Yet not all that surprisingly she honestly did preferred her own decorated room, this was way to wealthy and stuck-up for her taste.

Unfortunately she did not get all that much time to miss her old room, before there was a small knock on the door, and even true she frankly didn't feel like talking with anybody right now, she knew that it was best to give some kind of reply, and with that in mind she stood up from the bed and made her way over to the door where she reached out and slowly turned the knob, letting whoever was out there inside the room.

Luckily for her it was not the person she had expect, but his mother instead.

"Good morning my soon to be daughter-in-law, I do hope you slept well!" The woman said in a loud excited tone, and with a big happy smile on her face. It actually looked a bit like she was just about ready to start of the wedding celebration ahead of time.

Not that Cagalli saw any of that, she was far more busy making sure that the crazy bitch in front of her, didn't noticed the almost completely ill look she was having on her face right now.

But as luck would have it miss Seiran was far to engaged in talking about the wedding and her moron of a son, to even realize that the younger woman in the room looked just about ready to throw up.

"Yes miss Seiran I slept fine, thank you for asking" Cagalli said in a friendly tone, while giving Yuna's mother her best fake smile.

And much to her happiness the woman was just as thick-headed and dense as her son, so there wasn't really any chance that she would see through her false smile and her truly cheerful behavior.

Cagalli really did everything she could possibly think of, make it seem like to all the people living in this house, that she was honestly happy about having to marry the arrogant Seiran, even true she knew that deep inside she was just about ready to scream her lungs out in frustration, she was seriously getting very, very tired of hearing about all that damn marries stuff, but she just had to hold out a bit longer then she would be so far away from this house as possible.

Seeing the cheerful expression on the teenage's face, and hearing how happy she sounded right now, was more then enough to make the older woman smile brightly.

It really was a delight to know that her son was going to marry such a beautiful girl as Cagalli Yula Athha, she was already looking forward to have her as a part of the family, that way she could began teaching the blond girl how to acted like a proper lady.

Many of the things she had seen the blond hair girl do in the past, wasn't really proper for a woman with a high status such as them, especially the clothes the young woman always wore was just awful.

How in the would could a woman such as her walk around in something like pair of pants and T-shirt of all things. She really hoped that she somehow could help the teenage find a more proper taste in her choice of clothing.

But she could always think about that later, they need to get ready for the big event that was soon going to happen, it truly was going to be a nice thing seeing her son get married, it really was a joyous occasion.

"Well I'm delighted to hear that you slept so well, but I really do believe it's about that time you should started getting prepared for what's going to happen very soon between you and my sweet boy!" The woman said, still using that damn annoying tone, that frankly made Cagalli feel like throwing a thing or two after the arrogant purple haired woman.

Not that she did she need to keep her temper under control right now, until she could make her getaway from the Seiran estate, she could always explode once she got away from this hellhole. "Ok I'll started getting ready immediately, why don't you go down and help out with the other preparations, I'm sure that there is a lot to do downstairs, I can manage this on my own" Cagalli said using the most charming tone she could manage under the circumstance.

Looking at the girl for a second or two, miss Seiran got a somewhat thoughtful expression on her face.

"Are you sure that you can get in to your wedding dress on your own?" The woman asked in a slightly concerned tone, she really want everything today to go perfect, there just no room for mistakes a day such as this, and if bride showed up at the wedding looking like a complete nightmare, then that would surely be a disaster.

But the confident look the girl had on her face right now, did calm her nerves down a bit, especially when she heard her son's, soon to be wife begin talking in a loud determined tone. "You don't have to worry miss Seiran, I'll be ready when the wedding starts!" The girl said while smiling calmly at the older woman in front of her, that nodded slowly in understanding.

"I see, I'm delighted to hear that, I'll see you later then" the woman said, as she slowly turned around and left the room again.

Not noticing the look the girl had on her face now, if she had seen that she would immediately have realized that the blond hair girl was up to something that would surely make a lot of trouble for all of them.

But luckily for Cagalli, miss Seiran didn't see any of that she was already far away in her own mind, trying to figure out what else need to be done before the wedding could start.

Truly happy that the purple haired woman was finally gone, Cagalli hurried locked the door, then turned around and took a small glance over at her wedding dress that was hanging over by her closet.

Just one single look at the damn thing, was more then enough to make a deep unhappy frown ran over her forehead.

"What an ugly rag, what kind of woman would want to get married in something like that" the girl mumbled to herself.

Not even thinking about how expensive the white dress had been, it was after all created especially for her.

Not that she cared about that she hurried reached out and took the dress down from the closet, then throw it on the floor like it was nothing, after that she reached out and opened the left side of the closet, where a normal black and blue maid outfit was waiting for her.

And after using a few seconds to look it over, she slowly pulled it out of the closet and laid it down on her bed.

After that she reached down in to the bottom of the closet, where she searched around for a small minute until she found a long hair black wig that she immediately throw down beside the maid outfit.

And once she was absolutely certain, that she had everything she need for her escape, she didn't wasted anymore time, she quickly reached up and began getting undressed.

Which meant that it only took few short minutes before she had the maid outfit on, after that she slowly placed the black haired wig on her head, making extra sure that it was sitting just right, she really didn't want anybody to get suspicious about her before she was out of the house.

And once she was sure that everything was as it should be she turned and took a look over at herself in the mirror.

"Hmm I actually don't look half bad dressed like this, I wonder how Athrun would react if he saw me going around in something like this" the now somewhat black haired girl mumbled, as she reached up and gave the wig a small push to the left side, to make sure that it was covering all of her short blond hair, she truly wanted to be sure, that nobody in this house could recognize her dressed up like a maid.

But she was pretty sure that most of the house staff wouldn't really take a long enough look at her to realize that it was her, and there wasn't really any people in this house that knew her well enough to tell that it was her by just catching a short glint of her as she was leaving, and while still thinking about that she slowly made her way over to the balcony door.

Which she hurried reached out and opened up without hesitating even a second, once outside she took a quick look around to make sure that nobody was around to see her.

But the backyard of the giant house was pretty much empty, and the few people that actually was down there, was way to busy doing their jobs right now to give her any attention.

Truly happy about that she turned and looked over at the balcony that was just beside her's. "I better hurry up, Myrna should be waiting already" the black hair girl quietly whispered to herself, while taking one last look down at the ground, she knew that if she fell from there she could end up getting seriously hurt, but as luck would have it, this really was the only way out there.

And with that in mind she ran full speed forward, and jumped away from the her own balcony, now flying over towards the next one, luckily she was in great shape so she really didn't have much trouble getting over there.

But once both of her feet was planted safely on the other balcony, she could not help but feel relieved that she had gotten over there without being seen.

"Damn I really hope that I wouldn't have to do that again, anytime soon" the girl said while she reached out and opened the door, which she had made extra sure was unlock when she crawled in to her bed last night.

Actually one of the reasons why she had chosen to take the risk of leaving in such a dangerous way, was because she knew from a few of the staff members, that the room beside her's had been empty for a very long time.

Which in her eyes was a good thing, there was a few very expensive designer furniture and other things stash away in there.

So it wouldn't really be much of a surprise seeing one of the maids leave that room while the preparations for the wedding was still going on.

And once Cagalli was completely certain that there was nobody else presented in there, she hurried entered the room before anybody could noticed that she was hanging around out there.

Once inside again, she immediately took a quick look around to see if there was anything in there, she could use to help her sneaking out of the Seiran mansion.

But unfortunately for her, there wasn't a single thing in there, that could be used for something like that, so after looking around a bit longer she carefully walked over to the door.

Where she stood a few seconds, just trying to figure out if there was anybody else out there, but she couldn't hear anything on the other side of the brown wooden door, that however did of course not mean that the hallway was empty, so she did her best to open the door as quietly as possible, where she immediately took a quick look around.

And just the sight of the empty hall was more then enough to make a small smile ran over Cagalli's red lips, as she hurried stepped out in to the hallway and closed the door behind her, without making any kind of sound.

"So far so good, now I better hurry, before Yuna's crazy mother comes back" the girl muttered to herself in a whisper as she began walking down the hall.

Doing her best to act like she was just as busy working and preparing for the wedding, as the rest of the staff in the house.

Which meant that none of the people she meet in the hallway, had the necessary time to realize that the black hair girl, wasn't a person that used to be running around in the enormous house.

And the few that actually gave her a little attention, all thought she was a new employ they hadn't meet yet, which meant that it didn't take long before Cagalli reached her destination.

But just as she was about to leave somebody called out after her. "Hey where do you think you are going? There is still a lot of work that needs to be done, before the celebration can start!"

Hearing somebody ask her that Cagalli slowly turned and looked back at the older man that was standing behind her, he had short grey hair and a small mustache.

But even true he had sound a bit mad at her, he still had a somewhat gentle and kind look on his face, that did make Cagalli feel a little bad about having to lie to the man.

Yet she really didn't have any other options if she wanted to get out of there.

"Miss Seiran asked me to help out the other servants outside!" Cagalli said while making sure to change her voice a bit, so the man wouldn't know who she really was, but much to her small concern he didn't say anything to what she had just told him, he just stood there for a few seconds looking at her like he was thinking very hard about something.

Which only served to make Cagalli even more nervous, she really didn't like the way that man kept looking at her, for some reason she couldn't help but feel like he could see right through her disguise, and she was getting more and more certain, that it would not be long now, before he was going to call the rest of the house staff down there and tell them who she was.

But when she saw the old man give her a small friendly smile, she did relax a bit. "Well hurry up then, the time it short!" He said while waving her of in a kind manner.

Seeing that Cagalli gave the head servant of the house a small bow, before she turned around and ran full speed out of the mansion, not once looking back at the man that was still smiling after her.

"I wish you the best of luck miss Cagalli, I hope you will come back home to Orb someday" the man said, while watching the black hair girl until she was completely out of sight, it might have taken him a few seconds to recognize her.

But once he did, there was really no doubt about who it was dressed in that strange disguise.

And even true he was deeply sadden about knowing that the leader of this proud country, had to leave in such a cunning way, he did understand why she was doing it.

He too was having problems with the idea about Orb joining force with the Earth Alliance.

They where after all the once who had invade Orb two years ago, and killed of his only son, that had been an M1 Astray pilot back then.

So when he had seen the unknown maid, running by he had immediately got suspicious, and when he had seen that it really was miss Cagalli, he quickly realized what was going on.

Not that he could blame the young woman, he had seen how disrespected she was being treat by the other politicians, and he too would no doubt go in to hiding if he was being forced to marry one of those foolish Seiran's.

And with that in mind he hurried turned around and walked of, determined to make sure that it would take a very long time, before anybody in the house realized that Cagalli Yula Athha was no longer there.

"I really hope she gets out of here safely" the man whispered to himself, before he yelled out a few more orders to some of the other servants there.

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Meanwhile outside

Cagalli was quickly rushing over the ground, making sure that nobody out there had the opportunity to stop her again.

She wasn't sure she could avoid getting recognized a second time.

But fortunately most of the servants around the place, was so occupied right now that they didn't have the time to get a really good look at her. And as long as they couldn't that, there wasn't any real danger that somebody would actually realize who she was.

Which meant that it only took a few minutes before she arrived at the gate that would truly take her away from the Seiran mansion.

But much to her small annoyance there was a few guards standing over there.

She just hoped that they would let her go without too much trouble. But once she got close enough to them, she could see that they where busy arguing with a brown haired journalist about something.

Apparently the guy insisted to be let in there to take a look around the place before the big party could start after the wedding. But much to the journalist big irritation none of the guards wanted to let him in.

And seeing that they where having so much trouble keeping that man out, Cagalli began walking even faster towards the big gate.

Truly hoping that the journalist could manage to keep the guards busy just a bit longer. Unfortunately just as she was about to leave, the leader of the guards noticed what she was up to.

"Hey you where are you running of to at a time like this?" He asked in a loud tone, while leaving the task of getting rid of the annoying journalist to his pal, that was still trying hard to convince the journalist that it was a foolish idea for him to be running around in there.

But he kept on insisting that he and the world, had the right to see how exactly the ground was decorated.

Happy to know that she wouldn't have to deal with both of the guards.

The usually blond hair girl gave the man in front of her a kind smile, while taking a small glance out of the gate, truly hoping that she could fool this guy as easy as the last one. And with that in mind she decided to use the same explanation as before.

"Well miss Seiran asked me to run out and do some important errands for her" Cagalli said in a impatience voice, while taking a small glance down at her watch, so it would seem like she was quite busy and not had much time to talk.

Not that the guard noticed that, instead he just stood there looking at her for a few very long minutes with a somewhat thoughtful look on his face.

But finally when Cagalli was begin to think he was going to stand there looking at her for the rest of her life. He slowly opened his mouth and began talking to her in a distrustful tone, that made it clear, that he didn't completely believe her story about what she was out there for.

"Hmm I better call back to make sure that you really have something to do outside!" The man said, while reaching down for his mobile phone.

He did however not get the time to even close his hand around the device. "Ok you do that if you want, but you should know that the whole house is very busy right now. So if you disturb miss Seiran now you might end up losing your job, she was after all busy helping miss Cagalli get in to her wedding dress. That's actually why I'm out here, we need a few things to get miss Cagalli's hair just right!" The black haired girl explained, while mumbling something about that she too want to get married in such a beautiful gown.

Hearing the black haired girl said that, the guard once more removed his hand from the phone, which meant that it did not take long before he was just standing there looking at her again, clearly thinking very, very hard about her words.

He really didn't want to lose his job over something like that, he knew that if he disturb any of the Seiran's now, he could get in serious trouble.

But before he could think all that long about it, the journalist gave his friend a hard push, obviously trying to get him out of the way.

And the sight of the annoying man doing something like that.

Was more then enough for him to immediately decide that he needed to help out his friend. And with that decision made he again looked back at the girl, that by now was slowly drumming her foot on the ground.

"Hurry up and go I will see you once you get back!" He called out, just before he ran over to the two arguing men, where he immediately yelled out a few words that if the man didn't leave right now, then they would have to remove him by force.

But that did not stop the journalist from yelling a few things back, about that this was a great story, and that there was no way he was going to miss it.

Which of course provoked both guards to yell something back.

And even true Cagalli was honestly a bit curious about how this argument would end, she knew that there was just no way she could stay there, she need to go now that the guards was occupied with trying to talk the journalist in to leave the area peacefully.

But he just continued saying that he wasn't going anywhere without his story.

And even true it was becoming more and more obvious that both of the guards was running very thin on patient, the journalist firmly stood his ground, determined not to leave before he had gotten at least a few good pictures of the soon to be wed couple.

Just hearing him say those words was all that was need for Cagalli to realize that she seriously couldn't stand around out there any longer.

So after taking one small look back at the Seiran mansion, she turned around and ran full speed away from the big white house, still hearing the two guards and the journalist yelling and argue behind her.

And even true the shoes she had on right now was high-heeled, it only took her a few short minutes before she was out of hearing range.

"Damn, I almost thought I would never get out of that damn place!" The girl muttered while continuing running as fast as possible down the sidewalk, truly hoping that it wouldn't be long now before she spotted Myrna's car.

And much to her big relief, it did not take long before she saw a black car holding by the side of the road and even true it was not Myrna's usual car.

Cagalli could immediately recognize the person that was sitting by the wheel, and without even giving it a second thought, she hurried reached out and opened the other front door and got in beside the woman who she knew cared so much about her.

And even true Myrna was obviously a bit surprise at seeing her dressed in a maid outfit, the older woman immediately moved over and pulled Cagalli in to a brief hug.

"It's so good to see that you got out of there safely miss Cagalli!" Myrna sobbed, while holding on to the blond girl tightly slowly running her right hand up and down her back a few times, while a few tears slowly left her eyes and made their way down her face.

She truly was relieved that Cagalli had succeed in getting out of the Seiran mansion without being caught. "I was really begin to get worried about you, I have been sitting around out here for almost a whole hour, just waiting and hoping that you would show up miss Cagalli" the older woman sobbed, just before she once more moved away from the dressed up girl.

Where she hurried look her over to make sure that she wasn't hurt anywhere, but even with the strange disguise on she could easily tell that the young woman was all right.

"I'm sorry that I worried you Myrna, I had a little trouble getting out of there, fortunately most people back there was way to busy preparing for the celebration after the wedding" Cagalli explained, while taking a quick glance out of the window.

She seriously didn't want to spend too much time sitting around in this car.

There was still a very big chance, that somebody back at the Seiran mansion would realize that she was missing and begin searching for her. But it didn't really seem like anybody was coming after her yet.

"We better get moving Myrna, I would like very much to be out of the city, before they discover that I'm not there any longer" Cagalli said in a slightly nervous tone, while again taking a look around for any pursues.

But everything seemed somewhat calm, at least for the moment, but there really was no telling how long that was going to last.

Hearing the young woman said that, Myrna hurried reached out and started the rental car they where in.

And it didn't even take a minute before she was driving hastily down the road, trying her best not to go to fast, they surely didn't want to get stopped now by the police or somebody else for going to fast.

If somebody actually did that, there was a very good chance that they would discover who her passenger really was.

It did however not take much time before the black car was out of the city bound, which meant that Myrna could now drive even faster, she really hoped that there wasn't anybody now that could stop them.

She did not want to see the person she cared so much about getting married to a man she did not love. She would much rather see Cagalli get married to Athrun Zala, the man she had shown so often, that she loved with all of her heart.

But even as she sat there thinking about that, she couldn't help but take a small glance over at Cagalli, she really did look strange in that outfit. "If you don't mind me asking miss Cagalli, where in the world did you get that ridiculous costume and that black wig?" Myrna asked, once again turning her eyes back towards the road in front of them.

Thinking a bit about what to say to Myrna's question, Cagalli felt a small smile ran over her lips, as she took a small look down at herself.

"Well the maid outfit I stole from clean pile of laundry a few days ago, and the wig I bought in a small store that is selling Halloween costumes" Cagalli explained, as she thought about how helpful this maid costume had been in getting her out of the Seiran mansion.

Hearing Cagalli tell her that Myrna nodded a single time in understanding. "Ok but was the people back there really fooled so easily?" Myrna asked, wondering how the Seiran staff couldn't recognize Cagalli in that costume.

In her eyes, it really was quite easy to tell that it was Cagalli's face that was hidden underneath that black wig.

But perhaps it was because she had known Cagalli for so many years that she didn't have any trouble at all figuring out who she was, even dressed in that ridiculous disguise.

"When was the wedding suppose to start?" She asked, in a somewhat far away tone, not once removing her eyes from the road they where driving on.

Hearing those words, Cagalli slowly lifted her left arm and took a small glance at her watch.

"I think we have an small hour left before the whole thing will start" the blond girl said, while leaning slowly back in her seat, closing her eyes a few minutes, trying to figure out just how much trouble this would give the Seirans.

Not that there was anyway for her to know for certain, but she was greatly satisfied with the knowledge that this would really piss off Yuna and Unata.

Which in her eyes was a very good thing, she kinda wished she could see their expressions when they found out she was missing.

That would surely be entertaining, she did however not get much time to think about that before she began slowly falling asleep, finally letting the deep exhaustion she had been feeling the last few days take over.

Seeing her sleep like that, Myrna smiled a bit, while concentrating completely on driving the black car, still thinking about how it could be possible that such a young woman as Cagalli had to go through so much hardship.

And she truly hoped that it wouldn't take long, before Athrun Zala would come back home to the blond girl. He would no doubt be able to help Cagalli through all of this.

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At the same time at Cagalli and Myrna's destination.

A very serious conversation was going on between five people, while another one was peacefully sleeping on a futon over at the left corner of the room.

Not even noticing what the others where talking about.

"So what you are saying is that those mobile suits out there is called ASH types right?" Murrue asked, while taking another glance out at the destroyed Zaft machines that was laying pretty much all over the place.

Hearing her asked that, Andy also took a look around at the junkyard full of trashed ASH types mobile suits.

"Yeah I saw some data on them before I left Zaft, they are a new model, that have just recently left the assembling line. Only the regular military should have them" he said, while looking back at the other still trying to figure out who's bright idea it had been to attack their home and Lacus like this.

"Ok so we now know that those guys was from Zaft, and we are all pretty sure that all of those machines couldn't have been stolen when they are this new. But what I'm really wondering about is, who the heck send those guys?" Dearka asked, from where he was sitting over on a big rock, that most likely used to be a part of the outer wall of their once peaceful home.

Thinking a bit about the boy's question, Andy got a somewhat mindful expression on his face. "I have no idea about that Dearka, but I am feeling somewhat relieved that we decided to stay here, instead of going back to the Plants!" The one eyed man said, wishing slightly that he could somehow get a nice warm cup of coffee.

But unfortunately all of his coffee machines had been destroyed in the attack.

It did however not take much time before Lacus interrupted his thoughts.

"But...but why would Zaft come after me like this? I haven't been back at the Plants in two years now, not since before Kira found me by Junius Seven" Lacus said in a far away tone, thinking back to her very first meeting with the one who meant so much to her.

But she only did that for a few seconds before Kira reached out and took a hold on her hand, where he immediately gave it a gentle squeeze, which was all that was need to make her look away from the floor and over at him.

"I don't really know that Lacus, after all the kind things Athrun said about Gilbert Durandal the last time I saw him, I seriously don't understand what's going on. But I really do think, it's a stupid idea for us to continue staying here much longer!" The brown hair teen said, as he turned and took a look back at the Freedom before he again began talking.

"Now that so much time has gone by, there is a big chance that whoever send those guys have realized that they failed in their mission, and that could mean that there might be some kind of reinforcements on it's way here, so I think it's about time we leave this place, before we end up fighting somebody else" Kira said, while softly tighten his grip on Lacus hand.

Thinking a second or two about what Kira had just said.

Murrue turned and looked over at her resting daughter.

She knew that this had been a very traumatizing experience for Mayu, and she really didn't want her to stay here if there was a chance that even more Zaft soldiers could show up.

So after watching her little girl roll over on to her back.

Murrue again looked back at Kira, where she could easily tell by the boy's expression that he was just waiting for her to give him some kind of answer.

She did however not give him one yet, instead she just continued standing there, while the smiling face of a certain blond hair man ran through her mind, she could already pretty much guess what kind of response he would give to all of this.

But even as she was thinking about that, she took a small glance over at the Freedom that was standing directly behind them.

She already knew that it would only be a matter of time, before Kira would have to use the powerful mobile suit again, but a single glance at the boy's face was all she need to tell, that he was all right with piloting the gundam once more.

And if he could do that, there certainly was no way she want to sit this one out, she just hoped that Mayu wouldn't react to badly about being told that the next few months, she was going to be living on the Archangel.

It did however only take few seconds, before Murrue began thinking about how many times Mayu had asked to see the Archangel.

And Murrue was pretty sure that once she told the girl about what they where going to do.

Mayu would no doubt be very excited about finally being able to see the white space ship, and with that in mind Murrue slowly turned her head and looked over at the brown hair teen, that was standing next to her.

"You are right Kira, but we better make sure, that everybody else knows that we are leaving. It's not like the six of us can use the Archangel on our own" the woman said, while giving the boy a somewhat sad smile, as she took a small glance around the place hoping to find something that could be helpful in what they where about to do.

But pretty much everything in the house had been reduce in to trash.

Glad to know that miss Murrue was ok with the whole thing.

Kira turned and was just about to asked the others what their opinion was on the matter, but before he could even get his mouth open, he saw a black car stopping just outside of their hiding place.

And before he could say anything about it, both Dearka and Mr Waltfeld hurried pulled out the guns, clearly ready to fight if those people down there was hostile.

But the two of them visibly relaxed when they saw Myrna come out of the car, followed shortly by a black haired girl none of them knew, but once they heard the girl's voice they all realized who she was.

"KIRA! LACUS! ALL OF YOU WHERE ARE YOU!" The black hair girl shouted loudly, while looking around for the inhabits of the once beautiful house.

"We are up here Cagalli!" Lacus yelled back, as she hurried began making her way down to her sister-in-law that looked very much like she was just about ready to turn the whole place up side down to find them.

But when she heard Lacus voice, she clearly calmed down a lot, and began making her way up to meet the pink hair girl half way.

And once the two girls was close enough to each other Cagalli immediately grabbed on to the other girl and gave her a small hug, but before Lacus could even lifted her arms and hug back.

Her sister-in-law hurried moved away from her again, and narrowed her eyes a bit.

"Ok what in God's name happened here Lacus, and what about everybody else are they all right!" Cagalli asked in a deeply concerned tone, as she took a quick look around the place.

Hearing just how worried the other girl was Lacus gave her a reassuring smile. "You don't have to worry about the others, they are right up there!" The pink hair girl said, while pointing up at the cave she had left only a few minutes ago, where both Kira and Dearka was standing waving down at them.

Seeing the two boys do that, Cagalli immediately let out a deep relieved breath, as she hurried began climbing the rest of the way up to the sad remains of the shelter,

where she hurried took a look around too make sure that all of them where safe.

Yet a single look around was more then enough to tell her, that they where all feeling just fine, even under these circumstances.

But just as she was about to ask what the hell had been going on there, she noticed the strange looks her brother and Dearka was giving her, and before she could asked them what they where staring at Kira gave her a small smile.

"Hmm I like that dress and that wig sis, it really suits you!" Kira said in a teasing tone, as he again looked her over.

He knew quite well how much his sister hated being dressed in finder clothes, which meant that walking around in a maid costume was bound to be getting on her nerves.

And that truly hateful glare she was giving him right now, show him that she really didn't appreciate his little comment about what she was wearing.

"Ahhh shut the hell up Kira, nobody asked you!" Cagalli yelled loudly.

Just before she pulled the black hair wig of her head, and throw it straight in to her brother's face still mumbling about how stupid men could be and that they shouldn't be allow to talk unless they where spoken to first.

But unfortunately she did not get long to dream about that, before the other boy up there decided to put in his two cents about the subject.

"Hey girl what about the dress, Kira also said something bad about that, why ain't you getting rid of that too?" Dearka asked with a big grin on his face, that immediately disappeared when Cagalli moved over and gave his left shoulder a hard pounce, telling him to keep his mouth shut too.

And just feeling her hit him like that Dearka's hand hurried flew up to his shoulder, where he softly rubbed it a few time, trying to reduce some of the pain Cagalli had just inflict on him.

"Ouch that hurt girl!" Dearka told her, for some reason he couldn't help but feel a bit surprised about how much power that had been in that pounce, the blond girl really didn't look all that strong.

But that however did not mean she was weak in anyway, she had already showed him that plenty of times in the past, and after rubbing his sore shoulder a bit longer he again looked back at the blond hair girl.

Just as she once more asked about, what the heck had happened out here, and who the hell those green mobile suits out there belonged too.

Hearing Cagalli asked that, both Murrue and Andy end the conversation they had been in and walked over to the three teenager.

Just as Lacus and Myrna enter the cave. "My goodness this place is a mess, I'm deeply sorry that all of you had to lose your home like this, it really most be hard on all of you!" The older woman said, while making her way over to the still fast asleep Mayu, where she slowly lifted the cover and moved it up over the girls shoulders so she wouldn't get cold.

After doing that she again looked back at the others only to discover that they where all watching her.

"Oh please don't mine me, you just go ahead and explain what has been going on" the woman said in a gentle tone, as the Desert Tiger moved his one eye away from the woman and over at Cagalli, that was obviously getting a bit impatient waiting for a reply to her questions.

So after letting out a small breath, Andy began telling the girl all about their experience from last night, which meant that it did not take long before the blond hair girl turned around and took one more look at the destroyed mobile suits.

"You...you mean Zaft are the once who did all of this? But why the heck would they do something like this, it just doesn't make any sense!" Cagalli said in a truly shocked tone, while thinking back to how kind a man Gilbert Durandal had been at her meeting with him up at the Plants.

Was he really the one responsible for destroying this building and trying to kill all the people inside. "Damn him, what could he be planing?" Cagalli muttered out in a angry tone.

Then looked over at Lacus, trying to figure out if her sister-in-law had been hurt in anyway, she had after all been the one who had been the Zaft soldiers primary target.

But it didn't seemed like the pink hair girl had been hurt at all. But before she could say anything else, her brother stepped over next to her still holding on to the wig she had thrown in his face not long ago.

"It's not like I'm not happy to see you Cagalli. But what are you doing out here? I thought you where suppose to be back in the city marring to that Yuna character?" Kira said, truly happy that his sister wasn't marring a guy like that, he really was a total idiot.

And one thing was sure, Cagalli really did deserve somebody better then a stuck-up moron like Yuna Roma Seiran. He did however not get long to think about that before Cagalli interrupted his thoughts.

"Well truth is, I kinda ran away from the wedding, there is just no way I can be happy with any of this, and I seriously doubt that joining up with the Earth Alliance, will do Orb any good" Cagalli said, while a single tear fell from her right eye, and made it's way down her face.

Not that Cagalli noticed that, she just continued talking in the somewhat low spirited tone.

"I mean if my father was here he would have been totally against this, and it's getting more and more clear that I can't help out Orb right now, so the only thing I really can do, is leave until I find the right opportunity to return" the blond hair girl explained.

As she reached down and began playing with the ring Athrun had given her shortly before he had gone back to the Plants.

Hearing the reason to why his sister was there, and seeing the depressed look that was in both of her eyes.

Kira handed the wig over to his wife, then stepped over and pulled Cagalli in to gentle hug, slowly running both of his hands up and down her back, trying his best to make her feel better, as she began crying softly in to his shoulder.

"Please don't cry Cagalli, we all know that you tried your best to talk the other personalities out of the whole joining up thing. And I know for sure that your father is proud of you Cagalli" Kira said, while thinking back to some of the last thing Lord Uzumi had said to all of them, just before they all had left Orb two years ago.

And just as Cagalli was about to say something back to what Kira had just said.

Myrna stepped away from the still sleeping girl and walked over to them, where she placed her right hand on Cagalli's shoulder, making the blond girl turn around and look back at her.

"Master Kira's is absolutely right Cagalli, your father would have been very, very proud about seeing what a brave young woman you have turned in to!" Myran said in a kind tone.

Before she slowly moved her eyes over on Kira where she immediately gave him a kind smile, before she asked him to please look after Cagalli while she was away from the country.

Hearing the woman ask him that, Kira gave the woman a small smile back.

"You don't have to worry miss Myrna, I will look after her, all of us will!" Kira said in a determined tone, while taking a glance around at the others that all nodded in agreement.

Seeing that Myrna couldn't help but let out a small breath.

"I'm truly happy to hear that master Kira thank you" the woman said, before she turned her attention over on Cagalli that was watching her with a sadden expression on her face.

"Please take good care of yourself miss Cagalli, I hope to see you again someday, now goodbye all of you!" Myrna said in a clearly depressed tone, as she turned around and making her way back down to her car.

She knew that it was a very good idea for her to get home in a hurry, there was no doubt that at one point in time, some of the Seiran lackeys would show up at the Athha mansion, and begin asking questions about Cagalli whereabouts.

And it would certainly be a good idea for her to be back home, when they got there, she just hoped that they weren't there already, she did however not get long to think about that before she heard Cagalli's voice call out after her.

"You don't have to worry Myrna, I promise you that I will come back home someday!" The girl blond yelled loudly.

Just as Myrna turned and looked back up at her for a second or two, with a small smile on her face. After that she walked the rest of the way over to her car, which meant that it did not take long before the black vehicle was hastily leaving the area.

But even after the black car was out of sight, Cagalli just kept on standing there, looking after the kind woman who had just given her so much assistance.

She did however not get long to really think about everything the woman had done to help her, before her deep thoughts was suddenly brought to a hold when Lacus began talking just behind her.

"I really do think, we should get going, there is no telling who else could show up here, either looking for Cagalli or me!" The pink haired girl, said while taking a look around to see if there was anything heading this way.

But things did seem somewhat calm at the moment, there was nothing around that indicated that somebody was heading their way.

"You are right Lacus, we have a lot to do. So if it's all right with you Kira I would like for you to take Mayu along with you in the Freedom when you are heading for the Archangel's hiding place!" Murrue said, she truly didn't want to wake up her sleeping daughter just yet.

Hearing Murrue's request Kira gave her a small smile.

"Of course it's all right miss Murrue, I will head over there immediately, just promise me that you will look after Lacus until we can meet up over there" the boy said, while looking over at his wife, where he saw that she was giving him a calm smile.

Which he knew better then most people meant that he had nothing to worry about.

But before he could say anything else Dearka cut in.

"I'm a bit insult that you would even ask Kira, of course we are going to look after the pink prin...mmm Lacus" the boy said, while taking a small glance over at the brown haired woman to see if she had noticed what he had been about to say.

It was very rare that he used that pet name for Lacus, but when he did it, he always made sure that Murrue wasn't around.

It was after all a way for him to honour La Flaga, and even true he would always be deeply grateful that the blond man had sacrificed his life to save the Archangel and the one he loved.

He surely didn't want to bring out some bad memories.

Everybody in this house knew that from time to time, the brown hair woman was still deeply sadden about what had happened to Mu.

And single look at her face was enough for all of them to know, that her thoughts was over on the blond man right now.

"I'm sorry about that, miss Murrue" Dearka said, with a slightly guilty expression on his face, that did disappear a bit when he saw the small smile the woman was giving him, and before he could get his mouth open and say anything else to her.

Murrue beat him to it and began speak to him in a gentle tone. "It's all right Dearka, I know it wasn't your intentions to make me sad. Now lets not hang around here any longer, we got much that needs to be done!" Murrue said, as she hurried walked over and began packing up the few things, they had manage to save from their complete wrecked up home.

Seeing her do that, it didn't even take a minute, before the other was giving her a helping hand, while Kira was making his way over to the Freedom holding on to the still fast asleep Mayu.

And it wasn't long after that, before the Freedom's Phase Shift armor was activated and both of it's eyes lighten up a single time.

And it only took a few brief seconds, then the gundam flew full speed away from the area, quite obviously heading towards the place, where the Archangel had been hidden the last two years.

But as the Freedom was disappearing in the horizon.

All of them where wondering if they could succeed in getting out of Orb, without anybody noticing them. But in the end the only thing they could do was hope for the best.

So after they where finished packing, they too left the sad remains of their home.

To be continued.


	16. Chapter 16

Here is the next chapter. I hope that you guys enjoy it, and don't forget review now.

Chapter 16

It was about a half hour later on the Archangel.

Andrew Waltfeld was up on the bridge talking with Dalida about some of the things that need to be done.

But even as he was doing that. He couldn't help but wonder slightly just how many people would bother to show up.

He already knew that there was no way Sai Argyle would come, according to Dearka and Kira he had apparently gotten his fiancée pregnant a few month ago.

And there was just no way he could leave her by herself, even at a time like this. Not that any of the crew on the Archangel was expecting to see the boy, under such circumstances.

But what actually worried Andrew a bit was that there was still no sign of Arnold Neumann. And if he didn't show up they just had to find somebody else to pilot the Archangel.

But the big question now was who exactly should do that, it wasn't like anybody else on board had as much experience in controlling the big white space ship as he had, but it was not like they where leaving yet.

So there might still be a chance that he would get here in time, before they where heading out, so for now it was more important that they finished checking out everything else on the ship.

And with that in mind Andy again turned his attention back towards the thing Dalida was working so hard on, giving him a few advise about how he could get things done as quickly as possible.

But even as he was doing that, he turned and looked down at Jackie who was also working on the controls in front of him.

"By the way how many crew members have shown up?" He asked in a curious tone, as he watched the grey haired man trying hard to figure out the answer to his question, luckily he didn't have to wait long before Jackie began explaining to him that most of the mechanic staff and the mess hall staff was already presence on the Archangel.

But that they where still missing a few key personnel, like Murdoch and Arnold.

Hearing that the Desert Tiger nodded slowly in understanding while he asked the crew about what kind of supplies the Archangel had on board right now.

And it did not take long before Jackie was busy trying to figure that out, which of course only took a few minutes. And once Andy heard that they had more then enough food and water for a few months, he immediately began working on something else.

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Meanwhile down in the ships hangar.

A team of mechanics was already quite busy looking over the Freedom and Duel Rouge. Each of them doing their best to make sure that both of the gundams was ready for battle, if the only way they could get out of Orb was to fight.

But as they where doing that, Dearka was sitting in his light blue coloured Murasame busy running a complete check up on the mobile suit's OS.

He certainly didn't want to be a burden to the others, if there was something wrong with the Murasame.

It had after all been down there almost since the blue transformable mobile suit had first rolled of the assembling line, and that was a very long time ago.

And in Dearka's eyes it truly didn't hurt being to cautious with such things, he was already planing on taking a small look at the other Murasame down there.

Andrew Waltfeld was after all up on the bridge right now, so there was no way he had the time to do a check up on his machine. And it wasn't like Dearka had all that much else to do at the moment and he was determined to help out where he could.

Unfortunately he did not get much time to think about that, before one of the mechanics asked quite an interesting question.

"What about the SkyGrasper, should we take a look at that old thing too?" Somebody asked in a loud tone, while looking over at the fighter plane that was standing by itself at the end of the hangar.

And even true Dearka still had a lot to do on his Murasame, he couldn't help but turn and look back at the old aircraft.

"Hmm I think you guys should wait with that until you don't have anything else to do. It's not like we have any pilots on board that would actually get in to that old thing, so just leave it alone for now!" The boy said in a loud tone, just before he once more began working on the blue Murasame.

Still thinking about everything they where about to do.

But even true there was no doubt about how serious the situation was, his mind couldn't help but wander away from their current situation and over on a more cheerful subject.

And before he knew it his hands stopped working on the controls in front of him, so now he just sat there wondering and thinking about what his lovely girlfriend was doing right now.

He seriously hoped that it wouldn't be long before he would see her again, he really did miss her a lot, and he was just about ready to do everything to have her back here, where she belonged with the rest of them.

"Miriallia what are you doing right now?" He quietly asked himself, as he reached down in to his pocket and pulled out a small picture frame that miraculously had survive the attack on their home.

And even true the glass did have a bit of a crack in it, the photo itself still held a great deal of happy memories for him.

It was after all taken just shortly before the two of them had gone out on their very first date. And one single glance at the picture was pretty much all that was need to tell, that the brown haired girl was in a very good mood.

But as much as he loved this picture of Miriallia, he wouldn't really mind spending an hour or two just laying around somewhere just talking with her about everything that had happened.

But it really did seem like it was going to take quite some time yet, before he would be able to see the one he loved again.

So after looking at her a bit longer, he once more placed the photo back down in his pocket.

Being very careful not to break any more of the already sensitive glass, he did however not continue his work after that. He just sat there with a far away expression still thinking hard about Miriallia's smiling face, something he was longing to see a great deal at the moment.

But even with those thoughts on his mind, his hands again made their way up to the control,s where they slowly began typing away once more.

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Elsewhere on the ship.

Lacus and Cagalli had just tuck in Mayu in to her new bed, each of them a bit amazed that she could continued sleeping like this, with so much happening around her.

But she was apparently completely exhausted after everything that happened last night, not that anybody could blame the little girl for being so tired.

"She looks really cute when she is sleeping like this" Cagalli said, while taking a look around the room, there was a great deal of toys and books in there, incase she should get bored or just want something to do, actually just seeing all the stuff in there was more then enough to make Cagalli miss her own childhood.

Where she did not have nearly as much responsibility.

But after thinking about that for a few seconds, she slowly shook her head, it seriously wouldn't do her any good thinking about that now.

There was just no way her unworried some childhood would ever return, so dreaming about that wouldn't really do her any good.

She knew that there was no way she could even leave her responsibility behind. She needed to do everything possible to make Orb the same peace loving country it had been in the past.

The big question now was how in the world was she suppose to do that, as long as the Seirans was in control.

Just thinking about how far the two of them had been willing to take things, was more then enough for her to know that she was going to have a tough time getting the country to listen to her again.

She just hoped that she could somehow find a way to win back the people's loyalty from the Seirans.

She did however not get long to think about that before Lacus placed a hand on her shoulder, making her turn around and look back at the pink haired girl behind her, where she immediately noticed the caring smile her sister-in-law had on her face.

"We better leave before we wake her up Cagalli, you know as well as I that she is always angry when somebody wakes her. And I do believe that we are needed up on the bridge" Lacus said, thinking a few seconds about what her new job on the Archangel was suppose to be.

She wasn't truly all that keen on the idea about being the ships CIC, seeing as she had never tried that before, so she really didn't have any idea about what she was suppose to do.

It wasn't like she had any experience in being the CIC. She just hoped that it wouldn't take her too long to get the hang on things, she truly wanted to do everything possible to help the others out.

So while still thinking about that, she turned around and walked over to the door, where Cagalli was already waiting for her, which meant that it only took a few short minutes before the two girls was gone, leaving the sleeping Mayu by herself.

But what neither of them noticed was that when the door flew shut behind them.

The small brown hair girl slowly sat up on the bed and took a look around her new room. Just the sight of all the things in there, was more then enough to make a big smile ran over her lips.

"I really didn't think there would be so many cool things in here, I have to remember to thank mom for all of this!" Mayu said, as she got out from the bed and walked over to the big shelve that was on the other side of the room, slowly moving her eyes over everything on it, trying hard to decide what she should play with first.

She might be curious about getting a tour around the Archangel.

But she decided that it was most likely best to wait with that until her mother or somebody else had the time to go with her, she really didn't want to get lost when she was busy exploring, and it wasn't like she didn't have anything to do in there.

And with that in mind she hurried reached out and grabbed on to a few piece of toys, which didn't take her long to have spread out all over the floor.

And it took her even less time before she was far away playing around with all of her new things, not once thinking back to the terrible experience she had a few hours ago.

She was way to busy at the moment, messing around with every single thing, that was in her new room.

And if anybody saw her right now, they could quite easily tell by that big smile on her face, that she was in a very good mood right now. It wasn't everyday she got about thirty new piece of toys and a few other thing all at once.

This was almost exactly like Christmas, and that was definitely one of those holidays Mayu truly loved. It was always exciting finding out just what she was getting, from everybody else.

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And while Mayu was busy playing around with all of her new things.

Her mother was busy having a very serious conversation with Kira Yamato, just outside of the white space ship.

"Are you sure that this is the right thing to do Kira? I mean once we leave here, we don't really have any places to go, so where exactly do you think we should go?" Murrue asked, while thinking about her little girl that Lacus and Cagalli had taken to her new room.

She was really looking forward, to spend some time with her once they got safely out of Orb.

Hearing the woman's question Kira looked away from the Archangel and over at Murrue, with a thoughtful frown on his forehead as he tried to come up with some kind of reply to her question.

And finally after a few minutes he slowly opened his mouth.

"I think our best destination would be a place that still believes very much in the Athha family, there we should be able to lay low for some time" the boy said, while thinking about how long it would take the Archangel to reach that place.

Nodding a few times in understanding Murrue smiled a bit at the boy. "So we are heading for the Kingdom of Scandinavia right, that place have always had a great deal of respect for Lord Uzumi and the rest of the Athha" Murrue said in a far away tone.

She just couldn't help but feel a little guilty about dragging Mayu along with them.

She truly didn't deserved to get mixed up in any of this, and she deeply hoped that she could keep her daughter safe no matter what.

But even as she was thinking about that.

Kira began talking back to her, not seeing the slightly sad expression she had on her face. "Yes I do believe that would be our best option, there I'm sure that we can try to figure out what Zaft and the Earth Forces are up to" he said.

As he slowly turned his eyes away from the floor and over at Murrue, where he almost immediately noticing the depressing look she had in her eyes.

"What's wrong miss Murrue, it's been a very long time since I have last seen you look this sad?" The young man asked, not doing anything to hide his deep concern for the brown hair woman beside him.

Hearing him asked that, Murrue turned and looked back at him. "I was just thinking about, how much I wished that Mayu wouldn't have to come along with us on this trip. She is after all still a child, and I think it would be so much better for her that she stayed here, maybe with your famil. She does like your mother a lot" she said.

While thinking about how happy Mayu had been the last time she spend a night with aunty Caridad and uncle Haruma, as she always preferred to call them every time they came for a visit.

But as Murrue stood there thinking about that, Kira suddenly moved over and placed a hand on one of her shoulder, once more getting the woman to look back at him.

"I can take her there in the Freedom, if you truly want me to miss Murrue. But you know as well as I, that there is no way we can talk her out of leaving the ship. She wants to stay here with all of us, especially you miss Murrue!" The boy said.

Thinking about how many times, Mayu had shown that she truly loved her step-mother, with all of her being.

And it wasn't only Kira that thought it was quite sweet from time to time, how much the small brown haired girl, wanted to be there for her mother, both his wife and his sister thought pretty much the same thing, they had mention that more then a few times in the past.

"I don't know Kira, I really don't think she wouldn't be happy if she stayed here" Murrue said, still using that far away voice.

That really made Kira think about what she had just said.

"I don't think that's true miss Murrue, she always seems quite happy when she is around you. But if it make you feel better about the hold thing, I promise you I would do everything possible to protect her and the rest of the ship" Kira said with a calm smile on his face, trying his best to assure the woman that nothing was going to happen to Mayu.

Hearing the boy said that, Murrue slowly turned her attention back towards him. Thinking hard about what he had just said, and finally she could not help but smile a bit at him.

"I already know that you are going to protect us all Kira, but thank you very much for telling me this!" Murrue said in a grateful tone.

Just before she moved over and gave the young man a small hug, where she once more whispered how much she appreciated what he had just said to her.

After that she slowly moved away from him again.

And just as she was about to say something else to him, the elevator that was a few meters behind them flew open and in stepped Arnold Neumann and Kojiro Murdoch each of them with a big smile on their faces.

Which both Kira and Murrue immediately returned.

"It's good to see you two again, we where begin to wonder if you guys where ever going to show up!" Murrue said in a happy tone. It truly was great seeing the two crew members again.

The Archangel just wouldn't be the same without Arnold controlling the ship, and Murdoch down in the hangar, yelling at all the other machines if they didn't do their job well enough.

Hearing those words Murdoch got a deep frown on his forehead, as he folded both of his arms over his chest. "Ok now I am insulted, how in the world could you think I was going to miss out on this. If I'm not here none of the other mechanics would get anything done!" The man laughed in a loud tone, while he slowly looked the Archangel over.

The old girl, looked just as powerful, as the last time he had seen her, and he was already looking forward to be travelling on her again.

He might not show it much, but he kinda missed working around on the Archangel. It had always been a real challenge fixing up the ship itself and all the mobile suits it had on board.

The only other thing that had been almost as fun to work on as the Archangel, was when he had been helping out repairing the Minerva, and he had not been allowed on board that ship, so that little task actually got a little boring in the end.

Yet now that they where all back on board the Archangel, he was certain that there was a lot of things that need to be looked over, the ship had after all been down here for almost two years now, so there was bound to be a lot of things for him and the rest of the mechanics to do.

And just thinking about all the work that needed to be done, was more then enough to make a small smile ran over his lips.

And before the others could say anything to him.

He hurried began making his way towards the entrance of the ship.

And it only took about a minute before he was out of sight, quite obviously heading for the ships hangar, and seeing the man disappear so fast Murrue turned and looked over at Kira and Arnold.

"We better get inside too, I do believe that all of us is here now!" She said, as the two men nodded in agreement, then slowly walked after the woman in to the ship, with the door flying close behind them.

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It wasn't long after that before the three of them arrived at the bridge.

Once there Arnold made his way over to his usual chair and dropped down in it.

Then began powering the ship up while Andy gave him a few orders, that he immediately replied yes to, while he continued working on getting the Archangel ready to get out of this place.

But as he was doing that.

Murrue was standing by her usual seat looking straight at the Desert Tiger, for some reason she couldn't help but believe that everything on the ship would function all the more smoothly if he was in command of the Archangel.

And while still thinking about that, she opened her mouth and called out to him in a soft tone.

"Mr Waltfeld! Maybe it would be best if you where the one sitting in this chair!" Murrue said, as she took a small glance down at her usual spot on the ships bridge, wondering just how many orders she had yelled out while sitting there two years ago.

But before she could really give it all that much thought, the Desert Tiger began talking to her in a kind tone.

That of course made her look back up at him again, where she immediately noticed the friendly smile he was giving her.

"Nah! I actually feel much more comfortable sitting right here, and beside this ship is a bit short on pilots as it is, so I might have to go out there myself" the man said while thinking about the last time he had been in a mobile suit, the experiences he had back then, had far from been fun.

It was after all that battle, where he had lost his loving wife and a few body parts like his left eye and arm.

And just thinking about that made him feel all that more determined to go out in to battle once more.

He seriously didn't want anything like that to happen ever again, and while still thinking about that, he once more began talking to the brown haired woman.

"I truly am honoured that you would ask me, but I do think most of the crew, would feel more at ease if you where sitting in that chair captain Ramius!" He said while taking a small glance around at everybody else up there. It was easy to tell that pretty much everybody up there agreed to what he had just said.

But Murrue on the other hand just nodded a single time in understanding as she sat down in her seat. "Ok Arnold take us out of here, and please be careful not to hit any of the sides" Murrue said.

As the white space ship began slowly making it's way through the big hangar where it had been store, ever since it had gotten back to earth after the last war.

They did however not get very far, before Murrue yelled out for everybody to be ready, incase that there was any kind of trouble waiting for them outside, hearing her say that Cagalli stepped away from where she was standing beside Kira and Lacus.

"If it's all right with you guys, I would like very much to show Orb that I'm safe" she explained, while thinking back to the note she had left on her table, just before she had creep out of the Seiran mansion, wondering a bit if Yuna and his father had discovered the letter yet.

Truth be told there was actually a small part of her, that would very much like to see Yuna's reaction.

No matter what she was sure that the spoil moron was angry as hell right now, and that was something she wished she could see. It was always such a hilarious thing to see when things wasn't going the bastard's way.

Every time something like that happened he kinda acted like he was a small child that couldn't get the last piece of candy he want, and the whole thing with her running of like this was bound to piss him of a great deal, which was something Cagalli would almost pay money to see.

But for now the only thing she really could do was to use her imagination.

And just thinking about how angry he was right now was more then enough to make her let out a few light chuckles, which made the married couple beside her turn and look over at her.

"What are you thinking about Cagalli?" Lacus asked in a curious tone, as she again moved her eyes back towards the somewhat complicated controls in front her.

Hearing her asked that Cagalli turned and looked over at her sister-in-law. "I was just trying to imagine what could be going on back at the Seiran mansion" she said with a slightly wicked grin on her lips.

No matter what was happening back there, she almost felt a little sorry for all those servers that was most likely being blame for letting her get away so easily.

But after thinking about that for a bit, she slowly shook her head a few times, this wasn't really something worth feeling guilty about. It wasn't like any of those servers back there was being forced to work for the Seirans.

Each of them could pretty much leave whenever they felt like it, so if they want to stay back at that house. It truly was their own fault that Yuna was yelling at them right now.

"He is properly ready to blow up, just about now!" The tomboy said, not doing a thing to hide how much she liked the idea of making fools of the Seiran family.

This truly was going to hurt their reputation quite badly. And she knew how much the Seirans liked looking unmistakable in front of the public.

But before she could even try and figure out how much damage she had done by running of like this, just when her wedding to Yuna wasn't further away.

Kira moved away from where he was standing beside Lacus and over next to her, where he placed his right hand on her shoulder, making her jump slightly, she had after all been quite far away in her own thoughts.

But when she turned around and saw her brother smiling calmly at her, she visibly relax as she wonder a bit what he want.

"So the only thing you want to do once we get to the surface, is give the Seiran's and the other people in Orb a clue about where you are right?" Kira asked, while he saw his sister nod yes a single time to his question, as she once more disappeared back in to her own thoughts.

She apparently had a lot of things on her mind.

Which wasn't really much of a surprise, with everything she had been through today, actually now that he was thinking about it, he realized that he seriously wouldn't mind getting to bed early today.

And one small glance over at his wife, was all he need to know that she too was feeling somewhat stressed out and very exhausted at the moment.

It actually seemed a bit like, she was about ready to drifted of to sleep, in the very chair she was sitting in right now. And just the sight of her looking so worn out.

Was more then enough to make Kira hope that it wouldn't take too much time, for them to get Orbs attention. That way both he and his wife could finally get some much needed rest.

They hadn't really been able to relax since that group of Coordinators broke in to their home.

And once they had made certain that Orb knew that they where out here, there really wasn't anything, that could prevent the two of them from crawling in to their bed, and just sleep a few hours away.

He did however not get long to think about that, before Arnold yelled out that they where approaching the ocean surface.

And it didn't even take a minute before the Archangel came out of the deep blue water.

And was now cruising hastily over the ocean surface, making it's way towards Orb, just waiting for the military force that was most likely on standby there to notice them.

"So how long exactly are we going to sail around out here until they see us?" Arnold asked in a loud tone as he turned and took a small glance back at the blond girl, before he again turned his concentration back towards piloting the Archangel.

But before Cagalli had the opportunity to get out some kind of reply, Lacus beat her to it by yelling out that two Murasames was heading right for them.

Hearing that Murrue immediately got a thoughtful look on her face.

"Hmm they are most likely just out here to check up on what's going on out here, and now that they have seen us we can be certain that there is even more Orb forces on it's way here!" The woman said, just as the two Murasames flew far past the ship, and just one look at them made it clear that they where planing to keep their distance from them.

Whoever was inside the two machines was not crazy enough to try and attack them on their own, they just kept on flying slowly around them, obviously trying to figure out what the heck they where doing out there.

"It doesn't seem like those two want to fight, so lets just keep going until we are sure that Orb knows that we are here" the captain said, while again looking at the two red and white mobile suits that was still flying around in the distance.

And with that decision made the Archangel continued making it's way towards Orb, still with the two Murasames on their tail.

But even true the two machines seemed somewhat harmless right now, there was no telling what would happen once more Orbs forces showed up out there.

And with that in mind Kira suddenly turned around and began making his way towards the door. "I better get down to the hangar, incase they do something we are not prepared for" he told them, just as he disappeared out of the door.

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Meanwhile back on land.

To be more exact by Cagalli's room in the Seiran mansion.

Yuna had been pounding on the door to her room for almost a half hour now.

Which meant that the deep vain on his forehead just kept getting bigger and bigger. What the heck was going on in there, didn't she realize that if she stayed in there much longer, they where going to be late for their wedding.

"Cagalli what in Orb's name is going on in there, open up this instant!" He yelled out and was just about to began beating up the door again, when the head servant came running towards as fast as his old legs could carry him.

And just as Yuna was about to ask him if he had found the spare key to this room, the man reached down in to his pocket and pulled out the very thing Yuna needed to get in to Cagalli's chamber.

"Here you are sir, I'm sorry that it took me so long to find it, but for some reason it wasn't in it's usual location" the old man lied.

Truth be told he had been walking around with the key for the last hour now, making sure that nobody could find the damn thing. It was only now that the wedding was getting so close, that he thought that it might be a good idea to finally hand the key over to the youngish Seiran.

And he was now also completely certain that miss Cagalli had already had more then enough time, to get safely out of Orb.

But even as the old man was thinking about that, Yuna hurried took the key from his hand and un lucked the door. But before he could get even a foot inside the room his father showed up with a somewhat angry look on his face.

"Have you found that girl yet?" He asked in a loud tone, while looking around the hall for any signs of the blond haired brat.

"No father not yet, I was just about to go in to her room when you showed up!" Yuna said just before he slammed the door open.

But just as he was about to yell out her name, he noticed that the room was pretty much empty for any signs of life. And after looking around for a bit his eyes landed on the girl's wedding dress, that was laying on the floor.

Which made it pretty clear to him, that Cagalli had no intention of getting in to it.

He did however not looked at it for long before he lifted his head and took another look around, trying to figure out how the hell she had gotten out of there through a locked door.

But as he was doing that he suddenly saw a piece of paper over on the girls bed, and while still thinking about where the blond little bitch could be, he took a step closer to the bed and picked up the letter that had been left there.

And it only took a small second before he began reading the note out loud.

"Once you read this Yuna, I should already be leaving Orb on board the white angel, and I will only come back once I have found a way to save Orb from you and your father's ugly grasp. Heh I already told you I was going to make you pay for what you did Yuna Roma Seiran!"

That was pretty much all the letter said, but it was also more then enough to make his blood boil more then ever before.

"Damn that girl, damn her to hell!" The purple haired man muttered out just as he slowly tore the letter in half and throw both pieces of paper on the floor, still looking like he was just about ready to beat the crap out of the very first thing, that said even one single word to him.

But as he stood there thinking about how much he really want to kill Cagalli right now, another man suddenly entered the room. "Lord Yuna! Lord Unato! We have just gotten a report from our front line forces, that the Archangel is sailing around just outside of our coast. We are already sending out a few ships to try and find out what they are up too!" The man said loudly, while waiting to hear what the two Seirans had to say about this.

But much to his surprise Yuna just kneel down and picked up two crumpled up piece of paper from the floor.

And after straighten them out a bit, he slowly brought them together, then he just stood there studying them for a few very long seconds, until he slowly lifted his head again and looked back at the newly arrived man, now with an even more hateful expression on his face.

"Order our force to stop that ship no matter what, that ship has kidnapped Cagalli, we have to stop it before they can get away!" Yuna yelled loudly, just before he stormed with as much haste as possible out of the room, not once looking back at the people he was leaving behind.

He had to make sure that ship didn't get away from Orb with Cagalli.

If they really did succeed in escaping from Orb.

He would surely lose his only way to win the loyalty of those Orb forces, that still firmly believed that Cagalli was right when she said that it was a foolish idea for them to join forces with the Earth Forces.

And if the little bitch really did get away from here, he and his father would have a much harder time controlling those military forces that was still supporting her.

So he had to prevent this at all cost, there was no way in hell, he could permit something like this to happen.

"Damn that girl, doesn't she realize what she has done? Now everything is so much more complicated, who the hell does she think she is? This country is mine to do with what I want!" He muttered in a hateful tone, while thinking hard about how much he truly despised Cagalli Yula Athha, and how much he wanted to kill her right now, if he ever got his hands on her.

Not long after that he finally reached the exit of the big house, where he immediately noticed the great deal of military personnel that was running around all over the place, there was even a few squadrons of M1 Astray out there.

Not that Yuna cared about that at all, there was only one single thing he wanted to know right now. And while still thinking about that, he ran full speed over to the one who seemed to be in charge of all the fools there.

"What's hell going on? Is that damn ship still out there?" He asked, doing nothing to control the deep anger he was feeling, a big part of him actually wanted to tell the idiot in front of him, that if the Archangel succeed in getting away from them, there was going to be some very serious consequences.

But he somehow manage to keep the words down, as he stood there waiting somewhat impatiently for the man to answer him.

And fortunately it only took a second or two before the man began explaining to him what was happening outside of Orb. It actually cheered him up a bit when the man told him, that the fleet was already on it's way out there to try and stop the Archangel.

"Ok good, do tell them to hurry, we need to capture it before the media finds out about it!" The purple haired man bite out in a sour tone, while hoping slightly that they could somehow find away to keep this whole affair under their skin.

But thanks to all those military forces running around all over the place, that might be a very hard assignment.

It truly did seemed like it was going to be impossible to keep this from the public. "Damn you Cagalli" he quietly whispered to himself.

Being very careful that nobody around him could hear what he was muttering about, something he was actually doing a lot right now. But much to his big fortune, he somehow succeed in keeping his more angry emotions about all of this hidden.

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At the same time back on the Archangel.

The crew had of course already noticed the three or four squadrons Murasames and the small fleet of ships that was coming towards them.

And one small look around made it clear for all of them, that the Orb ships was trying to encircled them. Yet it was quite obvious, that they where not going to attack them, they where just trying to prevent them from leaving.

Not that any of the crew members on the Archangels bridge was feeling to worried about getting out of there, they already had an almost foolproof escape road ready.

The only thing they needed to do was head back down in to the ocean.

And just the sight of how much attention they where getting, made Andy turn around in his chair, and look back at Cagalli.

"Well I hope you are satisfied, if we stay here much longer we might end up having to fight them, so I think it would be best for us to take our leave now!" The one eyed man suggested with a small smile on his lips, as he turned around and took a glance over all the ships out there, the entire Orb fleet might not be presented.

But if they did get in to a fight now, they would certainly not escape from Orb unharmed.

But much to his small relief, he really didn't have anything to worry about. The blond girl was more then happy with the result of their little show.

"Yep lets get out of here, it's easy to tell from the way the fleet out there is acting that Yuna did understand my little message for him" Cagalli said, with a big smile on her face, still thinking about how hysterical her ex-fiancée clearly was right now.

But her happy thoughts about how much she had succeed in pissed Yuna off, by doing something like this, was brought to a hold by the Murrue's next words.

"Ok then open the vents we are going back under water!" The brown hair woman order, as she took one last look at all the warships that was surrounding them.

She was a bit worried that they would try attacking once they saw them disappear back in to the ocean. But even as the Archangel continued making it's descend in to the deep blue water, none of the ships out there did anything to prevent them from getting away.

And with no real obstacles to try and stop them.

It only took a few minutes until the Archangel had completely disappeared down in to the ocean, which was all that was needed to make the captain of the ship let out a small breath, as she slowly sank even deeper down in to her chair.

"Well then everybody, now that we are finally safe from any immediate danger, I could really use a few hours of sleep!" She said, while thinking about how sleepy she was feeling at the moment, and how much she truly want to spend a little time together with her daughter.

She hadn't really been able to do that, since their home was attack last night.

Luckily it didn't take long before Arnold gave her an offer she couldn't refuse. "If you want me to captain I can be in commanded for a few hours, just tell me where our destination is, after that there really shouldn't be any need for you to be sitting around up here" the blue haired man said, with a kind smile on his lips, as he again turned his attention back to his job.

Just hearing him say those words, Murrue felt a small smile ran over her lips, as she immediately began explaining to him where exactly the ship was going.

And once he had all the information he need, Murrue hurried stood up from her chair and began making her way towards the door, with Lacus following closely behind her.

Once outside of the bridge they both began walking slowly down the hall.

And even true each of them knew that they had a lot of things to talk about, none of them said anything, they where each feeling way to tired right now, to have a real serious conversation.

And once they past Mayu's chamber, Murrue just called out a small good-night to the pink haired girl.

Which made Lacus turn around and look back at her for a bit. "Thank you miss Murrue, I hope you sleep well too" Lacus told her.

Just before she continued making her way towards the hangar, truly hoping to find Kira down there. If she could be in his arms, Lacus knew that she wouldn't have to worry about falling asleep.

She was always out like a light whenever she was resting up against his chest.

It always felt so nice and peaceful, and she was already looking forward to having him sleep beside her for a few hours. She just hoped that he didn't have any work that need to be done.

She truly didn't want to be alone right now, she want Kira to be there right beside her, holding her securely in his two strong arms.

And while she was still dreaming about that. She was just about to enter the hangar, when her husband stepped out right in front of her, which meant that they almost banged their heads together.

But before they could do that, Kira hurried did a small jump backwards to avoid colliding with her, after that the two of them where just standing there looking at each other for a few seconds.

Until Kira slowly reached out and took her hand, where he gave it a light gentle squeeze.

"Hey you, did you come all the way down here to get me?" He asked in a soft tone, while looking straight in to her two tired eyes, as she nodded a few time at his question.

Seeing that, Kira couldn't help but smile a bit as they turned around and began walking away from the hangar without saying anything to each other. Yet if somebody saw them, they would easily be able to tell that the married couple was very happy that they where together.

And with nobody around to disturb them, it did not take long before they reached their new room on the Archangel.

And even true both of them where feeling a bit anxious to get a proper look at the place, where they would most likely going be spending a lot of their time, just the two of them.

The only thing they had on their minds at the moment, was getting under their cover and let the deep exhaustion that each of them where feeling take over.

And just sleep until the very next day.

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At the same time back up on one of the Orb ships.

Captain Todaka slowly lower his hand and looked back at the other crew members, not doing a thing to hide the small smile he had on his face right now.

He for one was very happy that the Archangel had gotten safely out of Orb. He seriously did believe that ship could pull out the same kind of miracle it had done two years ago, when it had put an end to the last war.

But as he was ordering the crew to get the ship moving so they could get back to Orb, one of the more new crew members stepped over in front of him, with a somewhat angry expression on his face, which made it clear for the captain that he had something on his mind, and he did not have to wait long to find out what it was.

"Why in the world where you saluting that ship like that Captain Todaka? It did after all just kidnap our countries leader!" The young man asked, in a somewhat loud tone.

Todaka however just stood there a few seconds studying the man for a bit, before he turned away and looked back out of the window he was standing next to.

"I was saluting the Archangel because I have a great deal of respect for that ship. Just try and think about everything it did in the last war, then I'm sure that you too couldn't help but feel some respect for it" the captain said in a far away tone, thinking hard about everything the white space ship had done.

Unfortunately he did not get much time to think about that, before the same man once more interrupted his thoughts.

"I don't care about what that ship did in the past! It just kidnap Lady Cagalli, when she was about to marry Lord Yuna, think about how much that would have done for a country!" The man said, clearly believing that it would have been a very good thing that Lord Yuna and miss Cagalli became man and wife.

But hearing the young man say that, just made Todaka turn and look back at him for a bit, before he once more looked back out of the window.

"If that's really what you believe then the two of us have nothing more to talk about" the captain said in a far away tone, that made it obvious to almost everybody up there that he was no longer in the mood to talk about this subject.

But that was not something the newest crew member on the ship picked up on, he continued talking to the captain in the same disrespectful tone as before.

"I will make sure to mention this conversation to Lord Yuna, and also that you did nothing to stop the Archangel!" The man said, quite obvious very serious about what he had just threaten the captain of this vessel with.

But Todaka didn't really take his threat and his words all that serious.

He just stepped away from the window and over in front of the Seiran loving idiot, where he looked straight in to his eyes for a few seconds, before he let out a small sigh.

"Maybe once we get back to the harbour, you should serious consider asking for a transfer to another ship, you obviously don't like being here. I mean I do respect your point of view in this matter, and that's why I kinda expect you to respect my view on those things, without all of this complaining" Todaka said, not once looking away from the clearly angry man in front of him.

It was obvious that he did not like being talked to in this kind of way.

Not that Todaka cared much about that right now, he just continued talking like he hadn't notice the hateful glare the man was sending him.

"And if you got nothing else to tell to me, other then that you will be telling the Seiran's that I did nothing to stop the Archangel, and that I actually saluted the ship, then be quiet until we get back home!" He said in a tone, that show all of them up there, that if the young man said anything else to him, he would be in serious trouble.

And just as he was about to say some else rude to the captain of the ship.

The person next to him, reached out and placed a hand on the young man's shoulder, making him turned around to see however had just interrupted him.

But before he could ask the stranger behind him to let him go, the man slowly lean forward and told him that it would be a good idea for him to shut up now, before he really got Captain Todaka mad at him.

Yet those advise pretty much fell on a deaf ear as he once more began talking about how wrong it was for an Orb officer to respect something that had just kidnap one of their countries leaders.

But when Todaka turned and gave the man one last warning glare.

Another crew member stepped over, and grabbed on to the arm of the talkative moron and pulled him along with him, out of the bridge, before his big mouth could get him in even more trouble with the commander of the ship, and once the provoking man was out of sight.

The angry look on Todaka's face slowly disappeared, while he again turned and looked back out over the blue ocean, still thinking about how much he truly hoped that the Archangel could put an end to this war as quickly as possible, before even more people would lose their lives.

But as the man stood there thinking about that another soldier stepped over behind him.

And began explaining to him that the two Seirans would very much like to talk with him, once the small fleet got back to Orb.

But even true the he knew that there was a very serious conversation waiting in front of him, he just nodded a single time in understanding, while he continued looking out at the light blue shining water, the ship was sailing on.

It truly was a beautiful sight.

To be continued.


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

It was a few hours after the Archangel had left Orb.

And even true the country was still trying to come up with a way to located the white space ship, everything was somewhat calm at the moment.

Which was something most of the Cagalli supports used to their advantage, while the people that was on the Seiran's side in this was still complaining about how terrible it was having miss Cagalli kidnapped so close to the wedding.

None of them really thought about how she ended up on the Archangel.

And the only thing the media was told, was that the Archangel had brutally kidnapped Orb's leader against her will, and that they where doing everything possible to save her from their evil grasp.

But not even and hour after that statement, an unknown person had let it out that miss Cagalli ran away on her own. And that the people who had forced her to leave was none other then the Seirans.

So now the Seiran supports was looking for two things, the Archangel and the person that had given those information to the public.

But while the Orb government was busy doing all of those things, they soon got something else to worry about.

Seeing as an unknown machine was currently heading straight towards Orb. So now most of their attention was turned towards getting their defense ready to take care of whatever was coming here.

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Outside in the approaching mobile armor.

Athrun was trying his best to get in contact with Orb, telling them that he was suppose to rendezvous with the Minerva.

But for some bizarre reason, he didn't get any kind of reply from anybody. It was like they where totally ignoring him, which really made him wonder what the heck was going on.

He knew that it was a normal procedure, that when something unknown was approaching Orbs airspace, they would almost immediately began asking him for some kind of identification.

Now however there was no response to anything he had just said, which actually worried him a bit, something strange was going on. But he just couldn't figure out what, it could be that they hadn't seen him yet.

But even as he was considering that possibility. He noticed three other machines coming right at him, which was a big surprise, seeing as he hadn't shown no kind of hostility towards the country.

And everybody there pretty much knew, that he was Cagalli's personal bodyguard.

But as he tried one last time to get in contact with Orb, the first one of the Murasames got over in to it's mobile suit mode where it immediately fired two shots after him.

Seeing that Athrun quickly rolled to the side, evading both of the attacks from the mobile suit. But even as he was doing that, the Murasame continued trying to shoot him down with it's beam rifle.

"What the heck are you guys doing? I didn't come here to fight, so why are you attacking me without reason? I already explained why I was here!" Athrun said in a loud tone.

Just as the two other Murasames out there began using him as target practice too, forcing him to evade down under their heavy assault, so he was almost touching the ocean surface.

But as he was flying around down there, the shots from the three Murasame kept on hailing down towards him. Each beam hitting the cold water he was still so close to, which of course meant, that it did not take long before a great deal of steam was began slowly engulfing the Saviour.

And that was something Athrun was quick to take advantage of by getting the red gundam over in to it's mobile suit mode, where he hurried turned around and fired three beams back up after the Murasames, being extra careful not to do any kind of damage to any of them.

He seriously didn't feel like explain to his fiancée why, he was destroying her countries mobile suits.

But his little attack on the Murasames still had the effect he want, now that they could see that he was shooting back they immediately made sure to get a little more distance between them.

And just as they where about to start shooting at him again.

He flew full speed out of the hot steam, now heading straight towards them, while firing his own beam rifle a few more times. Still making sure that he did not hurt any of his opponents.

That by now was a bit more cautious about attacking him directly, now that they had finally realized what they where up against.

And seeing the way these guys was flying around now made it clear for Athrun, that none of them had much experience in fighting a gundam, something he also made sure to take advantage of by flying in a out between the beams until he was right behind the lead of the bunch.

Where he gave the back of the Murasame a small tap with the Saviour's shield.

And just seeing him pull of such a difficult move, with no trouble at all, was more then enough to make the two other Murasame pilot hesitate in trying to attack him again, now that he was directly behind their commander and could take him out with one single move.

Not that Athrun was planing to do something like that, he just want a few answers.

"Now then, could one of you please tell me, why you are attacking me? When I have already explained that I wasn't here to fight" Athrun asked in a serious tone, while making sure to keep a close eye on the two other Murasames.

That obviously was trying to find some clever ingenious way, to attack him again without hurting their comrade.

And it was only when Athrun gave the Murasame another tap with the shield, that one of the pilots finally began talking to him in a loud yet slightly nervous tone of voice.

That made it quite clear for Athrun, that the pilot of the Orb mobile suit truly hated telling him what he want to know.

"The reason why we where attacking you is because you have no reason to be here, the Minerva left a few days ago, leaving nothing else other then a great deal of death and destruction behind!" The man said, doing nothing to hide how much he truly despised the grey space ship.

Not that Athrun was really listening to the man any longer, he just sat there with a somewhat thoughtful look on his face.

As he was trying to figure out why the Minerva would leave so suddenly.

He did however not think about that for long, before he noticed that one of the other mobile suits there was trying to sneak behind him, seeing that he immediately throw the Saviour backwards.

And before any of them even had the opportunity to attack him again. He hurried got the Saviour back over in it's mobile armor mode, and flew with great haste away from the area.

Leaving the three Murasames to look after him until he was completely out of sight. "Damn that guy was tough!" One of them exclaimed in a loud shocked tone.

Just as he turned around and began flying back to Orb, leaving his two friends to just hang there looking after the red gundam, they had just been fighting against.

He still couldn't quite believe how well this guy, had just fought.

And he seriously hoped that it would be a very long time, before he had to go up against him again. If this guy had been fighting serious they would all surely be dead now, which was not really something he liked thinking about.

So maybe once he got back to Orb, he should consider asking for the rest of the day off, he could really use it right now.

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And while Athrun was once more heading away from Orb.

The two Hawke sister was busy getting the most necessary items they would need for when the Minerva was leaving Carpentaria.

Up until now, Lunamaria had about two bottles of shampoo and a few other things she would clearly need to take a good long relaxing shower, once they got back to the ship.

While Meyrin on the other hand had more then enough soap to clean just about half of the Zaft army.

And what was actually surprise Lunamaira a bit, was that her sister wasn't done collecting all the things she wanted. She just kept on putting more and more things in to the basket she was holding on to.

"Meyrin do you really want to use all you money on that stuff, you kinda makes it seem like we are never going to see land again. It's not like when we leave Carpentaria that you wouldn't ever see soap again" Lunamaria said, while looking over everything her younger sibling thought she needed once they left Carpentaria.

It really was quite amazing what Meyrin wanted to throw her money away on.

And now that Luna was getting a really good look at all the things that was in the basket, she could easily tell that there was a few things in there, that had end up there by mistake.

As far as she knew Meyrin wasn't really the type of girl that needed a bottle of after shave.

Unless she wanted to use it as a gift to somebody.

But after thinking it over a bit she realized that all of their male friends birthdays was still quite far away. But before she could even try and tell Meyrin that she had something like that in her basket.

The youngish of the two girls suddenly realized that there was a few other things she want, now that they where there.

So before Lunamaria could even get her mouth haftway open. Meyrin ran off yelling something about wanting a new towel, since her old one had been ruined the last time she was washed it.

And just seeing her little sister act in such a crazy manner was more then enough to make Luna roll her eyes a single time.

Just as she slowly went after Meyrin so she ended up standing right behind her, and without saying anything she hurried began removing all the things from the basket that Meyrun didn't have any need for.

She knew that her little sister would be sad if she used all of her money, on a bunch of crap she really didn't have any need for.

And once Luna was certain that there was nothing else in the basket that was a complete wasted of her sister hard earn salary. She turned away and began putting everything she had just taken from the basket, back to where it belonged in the store.

Once done with that she saw that Meyrin had found a soft looking blue and yellow towel, that she apparently liked a lot.

And just seeing the way she was studying it, Luna could not help but smile a bit as she walked back over to her sister. "If you really like that one, I don't mind paying for it" she said in a gently tone.

It had after all been some time now, since she had last given Meyrin a present of some kind.

And they always use to give each other things when they where living back home at the Plants. Yet since the two of them had joined Zaft, that tradition had pretty much been forgotten.

And truth be told Lunamaria kinda missed it a bit, so if she could renew the tradition once more by giving her sister that big fluffy towel.

She truly didn't have anything against using her money on it. And seeing that big smile Meyrin had on her face right now, was enough to make her feel very happy that she offered to buy that thing for her sister.

"That's great sis, this one feels even soft then my green one!" Meyrin said in a truly delightful tone, while once more looking the object she was holding in both of her hands over.

And after doing that she placed it on top of all the other things she wanted, not noticing that the contents of her basket had been reduced quite a bit. She was more focused trying to figure out, if there was anything else she want now that they where there.

But much to Luna's big relief her sister was finally ready to get out of the damn store, and get back to the Minerva.

How the hell Meyrin could use almost a half hour in such a small shop, was something Lunamaria would never understand in a million years. Not that she got long to think about that, before her little sister interrupted her thoughts.

"So what about you sis, are you sure you shouldn't get a few more bottles of shampoo?" Meyrin asked, truly wondering if three small bottles was all her sister was going to need once the Minerva left Carpentaria.

But Lunamaria just gave her a small smile, while telling her that if she did run out of shampoo she could always borrow one of her many bottles. It was not like she was going to run out of them, anytime soon.

Hearing her say that Meyrin hurried took a small glance down at everything in her basket, where she immediately noticed that she only had about ten big bottles of shampoo.

But now that Lunamaria was telling her that she was going to borrow some of it.

She was actually begin to consider taking a few more bottles.

Yet before she could do that, Luna reached out and took a hold on her arm and began pulling her along to the checkout counter. And just before Meyrin could even think about asking her sister to let go of her arm.

Lunamaria turned and took one small glance back at her, explaining to her that if she had to stay even one minute longer in this damn shop, Meyrin could pay for the towel herself.

And hearing her say something like that, was more then enough to make Meyrin decide that she certainly didn't want to lose the fluffy towel, her sister had so kindly offered to buy for her.

And with that in mind it did not take long before the two girls was leaving the shop, with everything they had just bought.

But even true Luna had been quite tired of being inside that shop for so long. It only took a few minute of walking around outside in the fresh air, before she once more had a big smile on her face.

Which meant that it did not take long before the two sisters was busy talking about everything that was happening around them, there was just so many new things to see around here.

There was a ton of mobile suits pretty much all over the place, some of them undergoing some serious repair, while a few others was apparently on their way back to their hangar.

And just seeing all of these machines, was more then enough to make one certain very interesting question appear Meyrin's mind.

"Hey sis! Do you think that once we leave this place, we will get a few more mobile suits along with us? I mean there is more then enough space down in the hangar for a few more machines, and I was just think about how cool those new BABI mobile suits is. Do you think we will get a few of them with us?" The youngish of the two sister's asked in a curious tone.

Thinking a moment or two about her little sister's question, Luna got a thoughtful look in both of her eyes.

Just as she stopped and looked up at one of the mobile suit, that was suppose to be a replacement for the DINN.

Up until now she had not once seen a BABI in real combat, so she didn't really knew all that much about what it could do. But she was pretty sure that Meyrin was right about that having a few of them on board the Minerva would be very useful.

So maybe once they got back to the ship she should make sure to mention this to one of the high-ups.

The three stolen gundams was truth be told still running around out there somewhere. And if they had to face of against them again, it certainly wouldn't hurt having a little extra help on board.

She did however not get long to consider all of these things, before Meyrin called out to her in a loud tone.

"You could at least give me some kind of answer, instead of standing there daydreaming sis!" She said, finally getting Luna to move her eyes away from the BABI and over at her.

Where the older girl immediately noticed the slightly angry glare her sister was sending her, seeing that she couldn't help but smile a bit, while she turned and took one last glance up at the BABI.

"I'm sorry about that Meyrin, I just had a few things on my mind. But you are right, it really would be great, having a few of those fellows along for the ride" Luna said, still sounding very thoughtful about the whole thing.

And it didn't even take a minute before she continued talking in the same far away tone. "I was actually considering mention this conversation to one of the officers, I'm sure that they would agree on that we need more fighting power, to take down the Gaia, Chaos and Abyss!" The red haired girl said, thinking about who of them she should talk with about this, once they reached the ship.

So now it was Meyrin's turn to look a bit thoughtful.

She did however not take nearly as much time to tell what was on her mind. "If I where you, I think I'll go to the second in command" Meyrin said, while the two of them continued walking past the squadron of atmosphere flight mobile suits.

"Why should I talk with him?" Luna asked in a wondering tone. Looking over at her little sister, not understanding why it was best to talk with second in command of the Minerva.

"Well the captain has been quite busy since we got here, it's actually been a few days since I last saw her up on the bridge, while the second in command is up there almost all the time" Meyrin explained.

Just before she stopped and looked over at a group of soldiers that was busy playing a game of basketball on a big empty yard. That apparently had been made for the sole reason of give the people station there, a place to have fun and play around.

She did however not watch them for long, before the two girls continued on their way.

None of them had all that much interested in basketball, which meant that it did not take long before they where once more caught up in their conversation about getting a few BABIs stationed on board the Minerva.

"Ok Meyrin I will try and talk with the second in command, about this once we get back to the ship!" Luna said in a loud determined tone, while thinking about what she should say to the man, to get him to realized the logic in her words.

But if it was for the safety of the ship, she was completely certain, that it wouldn't be hard to convince him that she was right about all of this.

And while still thinking about that, the two women didn't say much else. Each of them just walked slowly beside each other, back towards the enormous grey space ship, they could see in the distance.

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Meanwhile some place else on the base.

Shinn was also out taking a look around the place, and even true he didn't show it all that much, he was impressed with the share numbers of Zaft mobile suits that was gather at this place.

It really was no wonder why this was Zafts most powerful base on earth, it really was quite amazing that there was enough space for all of these mobile suits.

Which made the boy wonder a bit just how many mobile suits that was actually here. But as he continued walking around between all the enormous hangars, that had obviously been made to house, a great deal of the war machines the base had.

Another thought suddenly enter his mind, as he wondered a bit if the Impulse was the only gundam around the place. He might have explored the base for a very long time now, yet he had still not seen another gundam at this place.

But perhaps if there really was any more of those machine here, they wouldn't keep them standing outside in an open area, where pretty much everybody could see them.

The most logical place to hide mobile suits like that was someplace where nobody would even think about looking for them.

But where in the world could that be, which of these hangars could be hiding something like that.

None of those close to him looked all that important, and as much as he really want to explore the place even more thoroughly. He knew that it was most likely not a smart move for him to be sniffing around in places where he was not permitted to be.

He might be wearing a Zaft red uniform, but that did not mean he could stick his nose in everything that was going on at the base, no matter how much he truly want to do that.

But if he did happen to see another gundam around this place, there was really nothing preventing him from taking a look at it.

And with that in mind, he was just about to continue his exploring of the base.

When he suddenly spotted a red mobile armor approaching the base with great speed.

At the first he was a bit worried that it was actually going to attack the base, but if that was the case then the alarms would have gone of already, so whatever the hell that strange looking thing was, it was most likely friendly.

And just as he was begin to wonder what the heck that red machine was.

It suddenly transformed over in to what could be nothing else other then a gundam. And just as he was trying to figure out where it was going to land, it began slowly descending towards the Minerva's already opening hangar.

Seeing that, he immediately felt a small grin run over his face.

"Hmm it doesn't look like I have to look all that far to find another gundam around this place. And from the looks of things, I'll say it's going to be coming with us, once we leave this place" the boy said in a happy tone.

Then he took of full speed towards the Minerva, determined to get a real good look at both the red mobile suit and it's pilot.

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At the same time at Shinn's and the red gundam's destination.

Nicol was down in the hangar, talking with Vino and Yolant about where the ship was going next.

None of the boys had much to do right now, since the Minerva and all the mobile suits on board was already fully repaired. Which meant that the only thing they could do was taking a look around outside of the ship, or stay on board and just hang around without doing anything.

Which was actually something the three boys enjoyed a lot right now.

It really was nice that they didn't have anything to do for a chance.

So they could get some time to just relax and talk for a bit. But unfortunately the peace and quiet was brought to a hold, when the hangar door suddenly without warning began opening.

And before any of them had the time to get up from their resting places, a red mobile suit entered the hangar, where it immediately began making it's way over to the empty spot beside Nicol's yellow GOUF.

"What is that thing?" Vino asked in a loud tone, that could be heard all over the hangar.

"I don't know the name of it. But it's obviously a gundam of some kind!" Nicol said, while looking the now grey mobile suit over. Wondering who in the world could be piloting something like this, and what reason the pilot had to be here.

But as he stood there trying to come up with some answers to his own question.

Shinn, Luna and Meyrin enter the hangar, all of them just as interested in getting a good look at the newly arrived mobile suit, as everybody else down in the hangar.

And just as Lunamaria was about to ask what was going on, the cockpit of the gundam flew open, which meant that it did not take long before it's pilot was slowly descending down to the floor.

The only one down there that could actually tell, who this strange person was without even seeing his face, was Nicol and he could not help but smile as he stepped over to greet his old friend, just as both of his feet land on the ground.

"Hello Athrun it's good to see you again!" The green hair boy said in a truly happy tone.

While Athrun reached up and removed his helmet, showing everybody down there that Nicol had been right about who this person really was. And before they had time to get over the shock of seeing him again.

The blue haired teenager placed his suitcase and helmet down on the floor, after that he slowly lifted his right hand and gave them all a small saluted.

Once that was over and done with, he gave Nicol the same kind of smile back. "It's good to see you too Nicol. It looks like the two of us will be working together again, since I was order by the Chairman to be a part of the Minervas crew!" The Saviour pilot said in a loud tone, that made another shock reaction ran through the other crew members.

That however did not slow Athrun's talk down at all, he just continued speaking to Nicol in the same calm manner as before.

"But as much as I would like to have a good long talk with you Nicol, I think it would properly be best that I meet the captain first, there is a few things I need to discourse with her" Athrun explained, while glancing away from Nicol and over at everybody else presence down there.

But he didn't really get much time to do that, before Nicol stepped over and placed one of his hands on Athrun's shoulder, making the blue haired boy look back at him again.

"If you want to talk with the captain Athrun, I don't mind taking you to her" Nicol offered in his usual friendly tone, while still smiling kindly at his old friend, he was really looking forward to have a good long talk with Athrun.

They hadn't really had much time to do that the last time he and miss Cagalli had been on board.

But now that Athrun was a proper member of the crew.

Nicol knew for sure that he would have plenty of time to catch up on things with his old team mate. But for now it was properly best to take Athrun to the captain so he could tell her the reason for why he was there.

Truth be told Nicol too was a bit curious about knowing why Athrun had made the decision to become a part of Zaft again. It wasn't like he would just run away from Orb, and leave miss Cagalli behind.

So it certainly was going to be interesting in hearing this conversation.

"Let's get going Athrun, I'm sure that the captain is already expecting you" Nicol said, just as he turned around and walked of with Athrun following closely behind him.

Leaving the rest of the crew members, looking after them until they where out of sight. And it was only then that the deep silence that was spreading between them was brought to an end.

"I did not think he was going to be the one inside that mobile suit, this is just great!" Lunamaria said in a cheerful tone. Not doing anything to hide how much she was looking forward to have the opportunity to get to know Athrun Zala even better.

There was just so many things, she want to know about the handsome blue haired boy.

But while Lunamaria was daydreaming about getting to know the gundam piloted even better, she did not noticed the wistful look her younger sister had on her face.

If she had actually done that, she would easily have been able to figure out, that she wasn't the only female on board the Minerva, that had an interested in the ships newest crew member.

Shinn was pretty much the only one there, that really didn't have much of an opinion about having Athrun on board.

But if the new gundam he had arrived in, was as powerful as the Impulse he would surely be a great help in the next battle they would get in to. And with that in mind he quickly turned around, and walked off in the same direction he had came from.

Determined to find Rey and ask him, if he thought that it was a good idea to have Athrun Zala back on board the Minerva.

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And while Shinn was searching for his best friend on the grey space ship.

Two other friends was inside one of the ships elevator, Athrun leading up against one of the walls in there.

Not really bothering to hide how tired he was right now, it had been a very long time since he had last been able to get a pleasant night of sleep, which really made him hope that the meeting with the captain of the ship, wouldn't take to long.

But as he stood there with all of those thoughts going through his head, the other person in there suddenly interrupted his deep thoughts.

"By the way Athrun, what's the name of that mobile suit you arrived here in?" Nicol asked him in a slightly curious tone.

While thinking back to the red gundam, that had enter the Minerva's hangar not long ago. It really had looked quite powerful and he was truly wondering what exactly the mobile suit could do.

He might only have seen that mobile suit a single time. But that was more then enough to make Nicol feel very keen, on finding as much information as possible about the red gundam.

And fortunately he did not have to wait all that long, before Athrun brought his almost visible curiosity to an end. "Well it's call the Saviour" Athrun said thinking back the few small tests he had run on the gundam while heading back to earth.

And as he was doing that it didn't take long, before he continued telling Nicol about how the Saviour could transform in to a mobile armor and what kind of weapons the machine had.

Hearing everything the Saviour could do Nicol nodded slowly in understanding. Just as the elevator stopped and both doors flew open, so the two boys could finally get out and walk the rest of the way to the captain's cabin.

Once there, Nicol slowly reached out and knocked gently on the door.

"Nicol Amalfi here miss captain, I brought our newest crew member to meet you!" The green haired boy said in a loud tone, making sure that the woman on the other side of the door could hear everything he was saying.

And it really didn't take all that long, before both of them heard the captain of the Minerva tell the two of them that they could come in.

Which made Nicol reach out and pressed down on the small button that was located just beside the door, and it only took about a small second before the two boys had access to the cabin.

Where they could see Talia Gladys sitting by her desk working hard on a few pieces of paper that was spread out in front of her, while the second in command Arthur Trine was standing beside her obviously watching her work.

But when Nicol and Athrun stepped inside, Talia immediately turned her attention away from the paper and over at the two boys, where she couldn't help but smile a bit when she saw who their newest crew member was.

"It's nice to see you again Athrun Zala, I truly didn't think we would be seeing you again anytime soon!" Talia said, as she stood up from her seat and walked over to the two teens.

Where Athrun hurried lift up his hand and gave her a respectful salute, while Nicol did the same from his location over by the entrance to the room, clearly ready to leave if anybody in there asked him to do that.

But none of the other people in there gave him much attention. Seeing as the captain and second in command was much more interested in talking with Athrun Zala right now.

"It's good to be back here again captain Gladys, I have been order by the Chairman to be a mobile suit pilot on board this ship" the blue haired teenager explained.

Using a deep respectful tone, while taking a small glance away from the woman and over at the second in command.

Where he could quite easily tell, from the man's expression that he was just as surprise about having him back on board again, as everybody else down in the hangar had been.

He did however not get the opportunity to mention anything about that, before Talia beat him to it and began talking again in a understanding tone. "I see, that's good to hear Athrun, I was thinking about asking for a few more mobile suits before we would leave Carpentaria. But now that you are here, I don't believe that would be necessary" the woman said, thinking about what little she actually knew about the Saviour gundam.

But her knowledge of that machine was somewhat minimal. Seeing as she had only seen a few photo of that gundam before they left the Plants.

But no matter what powers the mobile suit possessed, it would no doubt be a great help to all of them, once they where order to finally get going out and head for their next destination.

"By the way captain I been meaning to ask you what you guys are doing here? I did go to Orb first, but I was chased away from there by three Murasames. I didn't even get the opportunity to talk with Cagalli and ask what was going on" Athrun said, while the smiling face of his fiancée was running slowly through his head.

He just couldn't stop thinking about what was happening back in Orb.

And he truly wanted to have a good long talk with the woman he loved.

But if he couldn't enter Orb there wasn't really much to do about it, until he somehow found a way to enter the country again. But as he stood there thinking about all of the people he cared about, that was still back in Orb.

The captain of the Minerva studied the young man for a few seconds, until she interrupted his thoughts, with her next few words.

"So from what you are telling me, I can pretty much guess that you don't know that Orb has joined forces with the Earth Alliance" Talia said.

Making the blue haired teen's eyes snap away from the floor and back at her, where his expression immediately told her that he was quite shock about getting such depressed information.

And before Talia could say anything else to the boy.

She heard him mutter something that sound very much like how in the world Cagalli could do something like that. But before he had the opportunity to figure out what Cagalli was thinking.

Talia made the decision to tell Athrun what other information she had about Orb.

"I don't think you should blame your girlfriend too much Athrun. From what I have heard this was all decided by the Seiran family, after the Chief Representative was kidnapped by the Archangel" Talia explained in a somewhat thoughtful tone.

Not even noticing, how much it truly shocked the two boys, hearing the Archangel's name once more. And it took almost entire minute before Nicol somehow found his voice again.

"Arch...Archangel...but I...thought that...!" That was pretty much all he said, while thinking back to all of the friends he had on the white space ship. It might have been two years since he had last seen any of them.

But that did not mean, he didn't care about all of them, they had after all been through a lot together.

Which made him wonder a bit why the ship hadn't volunteered to help out Zaft. They could really use their help to bring all of this to an end, before it got to much out of hand.

Unfortunately he did not get long to think about what the Archangel was up too. Before Athrun finally recover his voice again, and asked the one question they both truly wanted some kind of answer to.

"Do you know where the Archangel is captain?" The blue haired teenager asked in a far away tone, truly wondering what in the world that could have gotten Kira and the others to take the white space ship out of it's hiding place.

But no matter what he just couldn't find any kind of response to his own questions.

And as much as he wanted to run off and search for the Archangel, there was no way he could leave the Minerva just after arriving at the ship.

So while still thinking about the Archangel and what it could be doing right now. He again looked back at the captain of the Minerva, that had obviously been waiting to get his attention again.

"No, I'm sorry Athrun, I have been wondering about that too. But according to the few reports we have, the ship disappeared almost immediately after kidnapping the Chief Representative!" Talia said, while trying a bit to figure out what the two boys could be thinking about at the moment.

Both of them seemed to be quite far away in their own thoughts.

But it did not take long before Nicol stepped over behind Athrun where he gave his friends shoulder a light pat.

Which made Athrun turn a bit and look back at him, clearly still having a great deal of things on his mind. "Let's go Athrun, I'm sure that captain Gladys would like to return to her work!" Nicol said, hoping that they did not have to stay in there any longer.

Truthfully he would actually like very much to find a place, where they could talk a bit about the Archangel.

And it did not take long before Athrun realized that this was not really the right place for him to stand around thinking about his fiancée and the rest of his friends on the Archangel.

And with that in mind he reached down for his suitcase then looked back at the captain.

"Thank you for telling me all of this captain Gladys, by the way I was asked by the Chairman to deliver this to you" Athrun said. Just as he placed a small box in front of the woman.

After doing that he hurried gave her a respectful bow, before he turned around and began heading slowly towards the still open door.

Where Nicol was waiting for him. And after the green haired boy had given the captain and second in command of the Minerva a short salute, the two friends hurried left the room, before Talia or Arthur had the chance to say anything else to them.

Once they got out of the room, the two boys walked slowly beside each other down the hall, both of them with a far of look on their faces.

And it was only after five minutes, before Nicol took a glance over at Athrun. "Where do you think they could be?" He asked in a tone, that was just loud enough for Athrun to heard it.

But Athrun didn't really say anything back he just stopped, and looked at the wall, still having that thoughtful expression covering his entire face.

And it was only when Nicol was about to repeat the question, that Athrun finally turned and looked back at him.

"I honestly don't know where they could be Nicol, I just can't figure out where in the world they could have disappeared to!" Athrun said, thinking hard about where the Archangel could be.

Hiding something with such an enormous size as the Archangel on land, wasn't really the most easy task to do.

It could after all quite easily be spotted from the air. But if he remember correctly he could recall hearing Erica Simmons mention something about the ship being able to go under water now.

And that seriously gave the Archangel, a lot of places to lay low for a while. They could pretty much be anywhere down in the ocean, and they would certainly need more then just a few Vosgulovs to find the white space ship.

"Perhaps when we get a little time off, we can try and find her Nicol. But for now there isn't really much else we can do but guess, and that wouldn't give us many clues about where the Archangel could be!" Athrun said, just as they arrived at the observation deck.

Where they both saw Shinn laying on a blue couch that was in there, reading in a new comic book, he had purchase not long.

They did however not give him much attention, before they walked over to the window at the end of the room.

Both of them looking out at the sunset that could be seen in the distance. Each of them so far away in their own thoughts, that they didn't even noticed that Shinn was now looking at them with a slightly curious look on his face.

But after a minute or two, he decided that his comic book, was much more interesting, then trying to figure out what those two where thinking so hard about.

So without giving the two other pilots another thought. He laided back down on the couch, and continued reading like Nicol and Athrun where not even presence at the moment.

He didn't even hear what else the two other teenagers was talking about.

"Hmm you are properly right Athrun, we just have to wait until they make some kind of move" Nicol said, as the faces of all the people he had been fighting together with two years earlier ran slowly through his mind.

But when he got to Mayura he quickly shook his head a few times, to get his thoughts away from the red haired girl. He seriously didn't want to think about her right now, it always made him feel so depressed and lonely when he did that.

And that was certainly not something he wanted either Athrun or Shinn to see. But much to his small fortunate both of them had their attention turned elsewhere.

Athrun was far more busy looking at the slowly descending sun, while Shinn had his nose buried in his thick comic book. And that meant none of them had noticed the slightly sad look, that had just made it's way over Nicol's face.

And before any of them could realized that he was feeling somewhat depressed at the moment. He continued his discussion with Athrun about the Archangel and her crew, like nothing was wrong at all.

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Meanwhile back in Talia Gladys room.

The captain was busy looking over the FAITH badges Athrun had given her just before he had left her office.

And even true she was greatly honour getting such a promotion. She could not help but wonder a bit why Gilbert thought this was a good idea. It wasn't like she was the most brilliant officer that had left the academy.

And there was already flying a few rumour around about her's and Gilbert's relationship, and now that she was a member of FAITH.

Those rumour would no doubt get much worth, and that was surely not something she was looking forward to. She actually did consider talking with Gilbert about this.

But she knew better then most people, that if he had first made up his mind about something there was nothing that could change it.

And with that in mind she slowly reached down and took the small badges, and placed it on the left side of her uniform. After that she turned her eyes over towards Arthur that was watching her with a curious expression on his face.

"Congratulations captain!" The man said in a tone, that told her that he quite clearly very excited about the whole thing.

And there was just no way that Talia wanted to ruin his good mood, so in the end she gave him a small caring smile.

"Thank you very much Arthur. Now then let's get back to work, we have quite an early day ahead of us tomorrow" the brown haired woman said, while turning her eyes down towards the paper, that was still laying all over her desk.

To be continued.


	18. Chapter 18

I'm sorry that this chapter took so long.

I don't really have any good excuses for the long wait, other then I needed a small break from writing on this story. But I can honestly tell you guys that the next chapter shouldn't take nearly as long as this one.

Chapter 18

The sun hadn't even raised.

When the Minerva slowly sailed away from Carpentaria and began heading towards it's next destination, with a single Vosgulov class functioning as escort.

Everything on the ship was pretty much peaceful seeing as there was not all that much for any of them to do right now.

And the few that was actually awake this early was using the time to get some breakfast. But even that was done in silence, seeing as it was not everybody down there that was completely awake yet.

The only one who actually seemed to be function normally at this hour was Rey who was sitting by himself. Truly enjoying the delicious meal that was standing in front of him.

But the sight of him looking so fresh even before the sun was up.

Was more then enough to somewhat piss of Lunamaria, that was sitting beside her little sister and Shinn, that was both busy resting their heads on the table they where sitting at.

"Why can't he just act like a normal human being, when we are forced to get up even before the devil himself gets his shoes on" the red haired girl grumbled out in a unhappy tone, while watching Rey happily eating his food.

Hearing her complaining.

Shinn slowly lifted his head, and took a look over at his best friend, also wondering a bit how in the world Rey could stop being tired almost immediately after rolling out of bed.

But in the end the Impulse pilot quickly realized that he really didn't feel like solving such a big mystery this early.

So after watching Rey a bit longer he took a small glance over at Luna. "I don't really know Luna, I guess he is just a morning person" the boy said letting out a small yawn.

Before he once more placed his tired head on top of the table, making it seemed like he was just about ready to fall asleep there.

Not that he got the required time to do that, as Lunamaria's voice made sure to keep him awake. "Wow big help you where Shinn. Now I understand why he can be in such a good mood this early!" The girl said not doing anything to keep the sarcasm out of her voice.

She wanted to make sure that Shinn realized that she was far from happy with his reply.

But much to her small disappointment he just took a brief glance up at her, with his two tired eyes, before he again returned to his half asleep state.

Not caring one bit about the slightly angry glare she was giving him, truthfully the only thing Shinn Asuka really wanted at the moment was a little time for himself.

So he could really wake up, not sit around like a half dead zombie that had returned to life not long ago, but fortunately he couldn't even do that before Luna interrupted his rest again.

"Ohhh good morning Athrun, I hope you slept well!" The red haired girl said in a sweet, yet very excited tone, that once more made Shinn glance up from the table.

Where he noticed that both Nicol and Athrun had just enter the mess hall.

And one short look at them, was enough for him to realized that they where just as cheerful in the morning as Rey was and he seriously didn't feel like dealing with that right now.

So it only took a few brief seconds before he again was laying on the table, not showing any kind of interested in any of the people around him, and much to his small relief none of the newcomers tried to get him to talk.

Which meant he could finally get the required time to wake up on his own, he didn't even hear what Athrun said back to Luna's loud cheerful greeting.

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Meanwhile Athrun was just getting over the small startle the red haired girl had given him.

He frankly hadn't expected that anybody would be greeting him so loudly this early in the morning.

But one look at the ZAKU pilots smiling face, made him realized that she hadn't yelled like that to frightened him. So after a second or two he gave her a small smile back, as he returned her greeting just not as loudly.

"Good morning to you too Luna, I slept fine thank you for asking" Athrun said, smiling briefly at the only female piloted on board the Minerva.

Before he walked past her and began making his way over towards the food, thinking hard about what need to be done on the Saviour once he was done eating.

The red gundam might be powerful. But there was a few things he would like to change on the OS now that he was down in the atmosphere. By doing that he could make sure that the mobile suit would function better, flying around down here.

But as he stood there trying to figure out what he should do first. He didn't even noticed the strange way Lunamaria was studying his broad back, with a curious look in both of her eyes.

It was only when he turned around again, and began making his way over to where Nicol was sitting that she finally looked away, and sat down beside her sister that was still peacefully resting on the table.

And if Luna didn't know any better she was almost sure that Meyrin was just about ready to go back to sleep while sitting there. And it was only after taking a closer look at her, that she realized that she really did have both eyes opened, and that she was busy watching whatever was happening around her.

"Meyrin you didn't spend half of the night playing video games again, did you?" Lunamaria asked in a small tone, that nobody else but the other red haired girl in there could hear.

And once Luna saw the somewhat guilty expression her sister had on her face. She immediately knew that she had been right in her assumption, which made her roll her eyes a single time.

"You know how mad the captain gets at you, if she caught you being sleepy, while on duty" Lunamaria said, while thinking about how much trouble her little sister had gotten in to last time she looked like she was about to fall asleep on the job.

Hearing her sister say that Meyrin finally moved her head up from the furniture she was resting on. And after looking at her older sister for a few seconds, she let out a tired breath.

"I couldn't help it sis, I couldn't fall asleep last night, and after a few hours just watching the ceiling, I decided to play just for a bit, but I guess I kinda got carried away, the game was just so exciting, I couldn't get myself to stop playing" She explained.

Just before she once more placed her head on the table, now at the very least looking somewhat more awake.

Seeing her do that, Luna rolled her eyes one more time. "If you are that exhausted go get some coffee or something so you can wake up. It wouldn't be long now before you are needed up on the bridge!" Luna said in a loud tone.

Hoping that her little sister wouldn't just ignore what she was saying right now.

But much to her small relief Meyrin did do what she told her and was soon back beside her drinking a cup of the hot refreshing liquid.

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But while pretty much all people in there was using the time to slack of this early morning.

None of them presence realized that there was some very serious thoughts going through Rey Za Burrel's head at the moment.

As he sat there eating his meal in his usual calm pace. For some reason the blond haired teenager couldn't help but wonder if it was truly a rational idea having Athrun Zala on board.

The boy might have helped them out a lot with stopping Junius Seven from hitting earth. But that certainly didn't change the fact that he was close friends with one of their worths enemies.

And that was more then enough reason for Rey to decided to keep a very close eye on Athrun Zala, to make extra sure that there would not come a day where he wouldn't suddenly betray them all.

He did not trusted the blue haired teenager any further then he could toss' the Saviour gundam. And from the small glance Rey had taken at the mobile suit when he got back to the ship yesterday, the red gundam looked quite heavy.

'Hmm maybe it would be best that I share these concerns with Gil. But for now I'll just keep him under observation. So he wouldn't try anything abnormal, that could mess up our plans' the boy thought.

Still watching Athrun just as he asked if Nicol could still play the piano as well as he use to.

Which Rey saw him nod yes to almost immediately, after swallowing what food he had in his mouth.

"Of course I can still play piano Athrun. But I have actually been considering trying to learn instrument like a violin or a cello" Nicol said, thinking about which one of the instrument would be hardest for him to master.

He wanted a serious challenge this time around, not something that almost came natural to him like playing on his piano.

Hearing him say that Athrun looked a bit thoughtful, before he gave Nicol his opinion on the two instrument.

"I honestly think you should go with the cello Nicol, that one sounds much better then the violin" Athrun said, while slightly wondering why he would always got a small headache every time he heard violin music.

And much to his small fortunate, Athrun didn't know anybody that could play that noisy instrument.

Which wasn't really something he thought should change anytime soon. And to his' small relief, he didn't have much to worry about before Nicol told him, that the cello was properly the one he would decided on in the end.

Seeing as that instrument would most likely provide the biggest challenge of the two of them. "But never mind that now Athrun. It's not like there is anywhere to buy one of them out here. But maybe once we get back to the Plants I can find a place to buy a cello!" Nicol said, thinking a few seconds about where exactly he should go to buy such an instrument.

Thinking briefly about Nicol's words, Athrun tried to remember if he had seen some sort of music instrument store, before he had left the Plants.

But in the end he just couldn't remember if he had noticed something like that.

It wasn't like he had much interested in play any kind of musical instrument. He was after all according to many of his friends completely tone deaf.

And just thinking back to how angry Myrna had gotten at him that one time he had tried to play the piano in Cagalli's house.

The older woman had almost been sure that he was trying to destroy the pure thing. And after listening to her telling him for almost two hours straight, that he need to practice a lot to play on a piano, he hadn't gone anywhere near the black instrument again, in all of that time he had been living there.

Something Cagalli had truly enjoyed teasing him with a lot.

She had told him more then a few times to keep an eye out for the piano, so it wouldn't attack him from behind one day when his back was turned.

"I'm sorry Nicol, but I can't help you with that, I don't really know all that much about musical instruments" the blue hair boy explained, as he took a small sip of the water that was just next to his plate.

But as he was doing that Nicol couldn't help but smile a bit. "I think, I can manage to find just the right instrument on my own. You are after all the most tone deaf person alive!" The green haired boy said with a small grin on his face, while thinking about how completely terrible it had sounded that one time back at the academy when all of them had gone out singing karaoke.

Which had actually been quite fun until it was Athrun's turn. Once that happened more then a few of them had left the place with great haste, not voluntarily wanting to be exposed to such horrifying torture.

And what made the whole experience even worth, was that Athrun did not know back then just how bad his singing could be, something all of them had made sure to mention once he was finally done singing, which had served to make the experience somewhat fun again.

Nicol couldn't even remember how many times all of them had been teasing Athrun with his music and singing abilities.

"Ok, ok Nicol no need to kick a man while he is down. I already know that I wouldn't be a great musician or anything like that anytime soon" Athrun said thinking a little about how much of a disaster it would be if he ever got up on a stage to perform a real live concert.

He was quite certain that the audience would be throwing fruits at him almost immediately after he started.

Which certainly didn't sound all that fun, but fortunately he didn't get much time to really figure out just how bad his musical career would be, before Nicol interrupted his thoughts.

"By the way Athrun there is actually something I have been wondering a bit about. Does the married couple still walks around with Haro and Birdy everywhere they go?" Nicol asked in a slightly curious tone, while thinking about how long it had been since he had last seen and talked with Kira and miss Lacus.

He might not show it all that much, but a small part of him really did miss them, and a great deal of the other old friends from the Archangel.

Hearing his friend's question Athrun got a somewhat thoughtful look on his face, while he sat there thinking about how often he saw Lacus and Kira walk around with their two small robots.

But after a few seconds he again looked back at Nicol.

"Hmm they don't always have them along, sometimes when they visit Cagalli and me they leave them back home, I guess they need some privacy from time to time" Athrun said, now thinking about where in the world the married couple could be.

For some reason no matter how hard he thought about it. He just couldn't figure out where exactly the Archangel had disappeared to, when it had left Orb.

Even true he had been using a lot of time to think about that, ever since the captain had told him about how the white space ship had kidnapped Cagalli.

But he just couldn't figure it out, and he knew that the only way he could get some answers was to talk with Kira and Cagalli, which could be pretty hard since he had no idea about where they could be.

"It doesn't sound like those two have change much" Nicol said a bit thoughtful, as he stood up and walked over and placed his plate and glass down on the kitchen counter at the end of the mess hall.

There the main chef and the rest of the kitchen staff, could easily spot them.

So they could get everything washed of, so it was ready to be used for the crews next meal, after doing that he once more walked over and sat down beside Athrun.

And it wasn't long after that, before the two of them again continued with their conversation.

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Elsewhere not that far away from the Minerva's route.

A single Spengler class was hidden away inside a minor canyon, where it was almost completely invisible from the outside world, and the only way anybody would discover that the war ship was in there was if they flew directly over the canyon.

And not once since the ship had hidden away in there, had there been anything nearby that could fly.

Which meant that things was actually quite peaceful in there, something most people wouldn't really be complaining all that much about. But three of the ships mobile suit pilots was getting quite bored.

They had been sitting around this damn place almost ever since they had gotten back to earth, and that was more then enough to make all three teenagers very frustrated.

As they sat out on the deck looking down at the water. Two of them talking quietly with each other about how completely boring this assignment was, and how long they had to stay there.

"I really don't get why Neo wants us to sit around here like this. I'm just about ready to make a few extra little air holes in the next person that gets in my way" Auel said in a creepy tone as he kept on playing with his gun.

Like it was the most normal thing ever to mess around with like this, but if anybody saw all the neat little tricks he was making with the weapon.

They would almost immediately realize that he was quite good at using that small thing to take the life away from another person.

And that he didn't care much about who exactly he help off in to an early grave. He did however not get much time to really show off before the green haired man that was sitting beside him took a small glance down at the weapon.

"Could you please put that thing away Auel? You know the Neo asked you a few days ago, to stop using your gun like it was a piece of toy" Sting said truly not like the way his blue haired friend kept on swinging the deadly little weapon around.

And what made Sting feel even more nervous about the entire display, was that he could easily tell that the Abyss piloted hadn't even bother to put on the safety on the gun.

"Ahhh stop your bellyaching Sting, I'm only doing this because I'm bored out of my mind. If there was something fun to do out here, I would not have to use my gun like this!" Auel said while pointing the weapon out over the ocean.

Obviously aiming at one of the seagulls that was flapping around out there, but the only reason why he didn't shot the pure creature.

Was because if he did something like that, the whole ship would most likely hear it, and there was no way in hell he wanted for Neo to confiscate his favorite toy.

He just didn't like going anywhere without having his gun around, he felt somewhat incomplete if it wasn't nearby. So he could use it to kill whatever Zaft soldier that got in his way.

And just thinking about how much pain he could cause one of their enemies with this little thing was more then enough to make him smile a bit, while he once more aimed the weapons out at one of the birds that was still flying around the ship.

Seeing him do that Sting slowly rolled his eyes a single time, as he turned his attention away from Auel and over towards the blond hair girl that was sitting on the other side of him.

Watching all the seagulls, and the calm blue ocean the John Paul Jones had been resting on the last few day, opposites of the clearly bored Abyss pilot.

Stella really didn't seemed to mind just sitting around out here like this, taking in the lovely view that could be seen from pretty much everywhere on the big war ship.

And just looking at the girl was enough for Sting to know that Stella was truly enjoying sitting around out here like this, feeling the gentle wind blowing softly through her short blond hair.

It actually amazed him a bit, how peaceful Stella could look from time to time. When she was fighting or piloting the Gaia she was clearly the most violent of the three of them.

Something she had showed a lot when they where stealing the three gundams and had to fight the one Zaft called the Impulse.

He and Auel almost had to force her to leave that fight. So they could get out of there, and seeing her now it actually was a bit difficult for him to believe that this was the same deadly girl, that had been inside the Gaia gundam, when they had fought against the Impulse.

But unfortunately Sting did not get much time to really think about the big difference between Stella's sweet girly personality, and her more mentally insane one.

Before they all heard Neo's voice called out to them in his normal kind tone. "There you three are! I have been looking all over the ship for you guys, there is a single thing I would like to ask you about!" The mask man explained.

While slowly looking the three kids over, immediately noticing that Auel was a bit more curious about finding out what he wanted.

And it did not take long before the blue haired teen got back up on his feet, where he slowly put his gun away, he knew from early conversation that Neo did not like talking with him if he was waving that thing around.

"Now what do you want? Can't you see that I'm busy being completely bored here!" The boy asked loudly.

Hoping that it wasn't something even more boring then sitting around out here watching all the dumb seagulls, making their way around the ship again and again.

Hearing the boy asked that Neo looked at him for a few seconds, and he could easily tell by Auel's expression, that the boy was running very low on patient with this

little assignment.

And one small glance over at Stella and Sting was more then enough to show him that they too where getting quite tired of being out here, not having anything to do.

But fortunately that was soon going to change, and with that in mind he gave the three teens a big smile. "Well if you are that occupied Auel, you might not want to go with the rest of us, when we head out to fight the Minerva. But that's all right the three of us will somehow manage to take that ship down on our own!" Neo said still having that grin on his face.

Hearing those words leave the mask man's mouth.

It took least then a second before the two other teenagers was up on their feet, and now standing almost directly in front of him.

"Is it true Neo, is the Minerva really coming here?" Stella asked in a somewhat wishful tone, as she thought about how much of a beating she owed the bastard in the Impulse.

She was already looking forward with great expectations to tear that damn machine apart.

Smiling a bit at the girl's question Neo slowly reached out and rubbed her hair in a gentle way. "Yes Stella it's the truth, we detected the ship heading in our direction not that long ago, and I for one think the four of us need to give that hunk of Zaft junk a little pay back for our last meeting, don't you guys agree?" He asked making sure to remind the teens about how their last battle with the Minerva had ended.

He was sure that by telling them something like that, he could increase their determination to destroy the grey Zaft ship.

And just seeing how certain of themselves Auel and Stella looked right now. Was enough for him to know that they would both do their best to take down the Minerva.

Sting on the other hand was much better at hiding his emotions about this matter then the two others.

But even as he was doing that, Neo could quite easily tell by the Chaos pilots expression that he too was feeling some happiness about once more have been granted the opportunity to get even with the Minerva, for their few previous defeats by the enormous Zaft space ship.

"I have already request permission to borrow all of the Windams that is stationed around the new base we are building. So now we should stand a fighting chance against the Minerva"

Neo said while again looking the three other members of Phantom Pain over to see if they had anything at all to add. Now that he was finally done explaining to them that they where not going to be the only once, that was going to fight in this battle.

But much to his small surprise, none of the teens seemed to care much about having some extra help in this battle.

If nothing else they seemed to be feeling quite impatient right now, it was pretty obvious that they where just waiting for him to tell them, that they should hurry up and get moving.

And seeing as the Minerva was still quite far away from their location.

The mask wearing man decided that he wanted to see who of them where going to yell at him first. And not much to his surprise, it did not even take a minute before one of them ran low on patient.

"Ok if the Minerva is so close by, then why the hell are we standing around here like this wasting time, me and the Abyss is just itching after tearing a hole or two in that damn ship!" Auel yelled loudly before he turned around and ran off towards the entrance of the John Paul Jones.

Determined to get in to his space suit as quickly as possible so he could get out there and destroy the Minerva.

Seeing the boy disappear in to the ship like that.

Neo slowly rolled his eyes a single time under the mask, as he mumbled something about that he was never going to change. And with that in mind he again looked back at the two other teens, that was still standing behind him.

"Lets go you two, if we are not there he might ran off to fight the Minerva on his own" Neo said, smiling at bit at the two other gundam pilots before he turned away, and walked off in the same direction as Auel, with Stella and Sting following closely behind him. Both of them clearly very excited about what they where going to do in just a few minutes.

And Neo too was truly looking forward to this battle with great expectation, this time there was just no way that the Minerva was going to escape from them without getting a serious ass kicking first.

He just hoped that the mechanics was done with the upgrading the engines on his purple Windam. That way the mobile suit should be able to fly even faster then a standard Windam.

Which would certainly give him a big advantage if he should end up fighting with the Impulse in this battle. That mobile suit and it's pilot had already proven more then once, that the Impulse gundam was a very fast machine, and that it should not be underestimated.

He did however not get long to think about that, before the blond girl behind him suddenly interrupted his thoughts. "Neo, if the Minerva is out at sea, then how am I going to fight it?" Stella asked, thinking about how her black mobile suit was made for ground battle, and did not have the ability to fly like the Chaos or swim like the Abyss.

She truly didn't want to be left being, while the others where fighting. She owe both the red ZAKU and the Impulse, a serious beating after her last engagement with those two mobile suits.

But once she heard Neo's next words she immediately got a disappointed expression on her face. "I'm sorry Stella, but you have to stay behind. For now there is just no way we can get the Gaia out to the Minerva. But perhaps if we a lucky we can force the Minerva in towards land, there you can finish it off. While the rest of us take care of the ships mobile suits" the blond man said.

As he again reached out and caress the girl's blond hair one more time. Before the three of them continued the rest of the way to the ships hangar, where Auel was already waiting for them over by the Abyss.

"It's about time you guys showed up, I'm going to be completely old and grey before we can get out there and destroy that ship!" The blue haired boy yelled out in a lot angry tone, that could no doubt be heard all over the hangar.

While he stood there glaring a bit at his three team mates, truly hating that they where taking so damn long to get ready, he want to get out of this ship now.

Hearing him say that Neo just let out a small sigh as he made his way past the boy and over to his Windam, not really caring if the boy had anything else to complain about.

There was however another person that had something to say about Auel's bad behaviour. Sting just couldn't help but feel a bit stressed out after spending a very big part of the morning, listening to all the complains the boy had over this assignment.

And he was seriously begin to get tired of Auel telling him every damn second how boring this place was.

"Why don't you just shut up for once today Auel and get in to the Abyss, you are really starting to get on my nerves!" Sting said in a somewhat annoyed tone, as he hurried walked off after Stella out of the hangar.

The two of them still need to get in to their own space suits, before they could go out in to combat with the Minerva. That apparently still hadn't noticed how close they where getting to it.

They where literally breathing down their necks now. Yet the ship still hadn't done anything that show that it knew that the John Paul Jones' mobile suits was getting ready to attack them.

And it did not take long before the two other pilots returned to the hangar. Now both of them dressed in there space suits, and without wasting anymore valuable time, they hurried got in to their mobile suits.

And shortly after that the hangar doors on the ship was opened. Where a single purple Windam and the Chaos gundam immediately took off in the direction the Minerva was suppose to be in.

Joined by a whole squadron of about thirty more Windams, and with the Abyss gundam following all of them quietly under water.

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At the same time back on the very ship Phantom Pain was going to attack, a great deal of the crew members had finally been able to somewhat shake of the deep tiredness many of them had felt because of their early departure.

So now many of them where busy doing whatever chore that need to be done around the ship.

But that of course didn't mean, that all of them where working hard right now.

The ships pilots didn't really have much to do right now, so they where using the time to just relax for a bit. Both Rey and Shinn was sitting over by themselves.

Each of them concentrating on the game of chess that was standing between them, while the other pilots was sitting at the other side of the room playing a game of cards with each other.

But even true the games didn't have anything in common, the five pilots was all enjoying the peacefulness that was surrounding them right now. It really was nice just sitting around here like this having nothing to do, other then being a bit lazy for a change.

The only time the silence was brought to a brief end was when Shinn lost his queen to Rey.

That did make the boy yell out a few minor courses, before he once more turned his attention back towards the game, with a deeply determined look in both of his eyes, there was just no way he was going to let Rey win this time around.

He was getting so damn tired of losing every time he played this game with Rey. He just had to find away to beat him, there just had to be some kind of weakness in the bizarre way Rey had placed all of his chess pieces.

But right now he just couldn't see it, even true he was completely sure that there just had to be someway to win against his friend in this game.

"I just have to think for a bit then I'm sure that I can find away to take you out Rey!" Shinn said in silence yet determined tone, as he took a short glance up at where his opponent's king was on the board.

Seeing it stand securely in the back with a knight and a single bishop, while the rest of Rey's chess pieces spread out all over the board.

Making certain that if Shinn was going to try and get close enough to Rey's king, he would no doubt lose a great deal of his own pieces in the process, which meant that there was a good change that he would end up losing this game.

So the only thing he could do right now was to try and take out the pieces he was close to. And with that in mind he reached out and moved his knights over in the direction of Rey's other bishop.

"Your turn!" The boy said in a loud tone, trying to show his friend that he wasn't going down that easily.

But much to his big disappointment Rey didn't react much to that. He just reached out and used one of his pawns to take the knight Shinn had just moved, and once he had placed that one over beside all the other chess pieces he had taken.

He slowly lifted his head, and gave the boy a small smile. "You should always take a good look around before you move Shinn" Rey advised him in a kind tone.

While watching the deep angry frown once more disappear from Shinn's face, as he looked up from the board and over at Rey where he gave him a small unhappy glare before he again turned his eyes down towards the game.

"Damn how did that happened?" He grumbled loudly, while again trying to find away to get up to the king without having to sacrifice too many of his own pieces.

He was already running a bit low, and if he didn't find some brilliant strategy very soon, he knew that he was surely going to lose this game.

But before he could really give it some thought the alarm began sounding loudly all over the ship. And it didn't even take a second before all of them heard Meyrin's voice telling them that all pilots should board their machines immediately.

"Ahh damn it, and I was just about to win!" Shinn yelled, while taking one last glance at the chess board before he and Rey ran full speed out of the mess hall with Luna following closely behind them.

Seeing his comrades leave with such a big hurry Nicol turned and looked back at Athrun. That was just standing there with a thoughtful look in both of his eyes, that made it pretty clear, that he was thinking very hard about what he should do now.

"Are you coming too Athrun?" The green haired pilot asked, while taking a brief glance down at the FAITH emblem hanging on Athrun's chest.

That little thing meant that Athrun was pretty much free to do whatever he wanted, so if he didn't want to go out there and fight, neither the captain or anybody else on the ship could order him to do it.

But one thing Nicol knew about Athrun, was that there was just no way, he was going to just stay on board the Minerva, while all of them where out there fighting for their lives.

And finally after standing there for a few seconds just waiting for his friend to give him some kind of response, Athrun slowly looked up from the floor and over at him.

"I'm going too Nicol, I am after all a crew member of this ship now, and I wanted to help you guys protect the Minerva from whatever is out there" Athrun said while thinking shortly about all the new people he had meet, since the very first time he and Cagalli sat foot on the giant Zaft ship.

He did however only do that for a small second, before he again began talking in a determined. "We better hurry and get down to the hangar Nicol, before the battle begins. The others a properly wondering what the two of us is doing right now!" Athrun said.

Just as he turned around and ran full speed out of the mess hall, with his friend running not far behind him.

And it wasn't long after before the two of them arrived at the hangar.

"What the heck took you two so long? We where actually begin to think we had to fight this battle on our own!" Lunamaria yelled loudly, making sure that both boys knew her opinion about them getting down here so late.

But neither Nicol or Athrun gave the girl any kind of response, they just took a small glance over at her, then decided that it was properly best just to ignore her for now. They really didn't have the time for a long discussion right now.

So without saying a single thing to the girl, the boys ran the rest of the way over to their mobile suits, both of them determined to get outside as quickly as possible.

Once the Saviour's cockpit was closed, Athrun immediately began powering the mobile suit up, just as the gundam was dropped down on to the catapult, but just as that happened the captain's face suddenly appeared on the monitor.

"Athrun Zala, once the battle starts I would like for you to take command of the other mobile suits!" The brown haired woman said.

Making the blue haired teen blink a few times, he hadn't really expected to be asked something like that, he did after all only join the Minerva's crew yesterday.

So he pretty much thought that Nicol was going to be in command, he was after all the most higher-ranking of all the other pilots, and he had been with the Minerva most longer then Athrun had, so he should already pretty much know what Shinn, Luna and Rey's strong points was, while being out in a battle.

But after shaking of the small surprise, he immediately nodded a single time in understanding as he told the woman that he understood her order, after that he hurried got in contact with Shinn and Nicol.

"Once we get outside I'll be the one in command!" He said in a loud tone, while waiting for them to give him some kind of reply, it didn't even take a second before Nicol acknowledged what Athrun had just said.

It did however take a few seconds before Shinn gave him a somewhat unhappy reply.

"Yes sir, I understand!" he said not doing anything to hide that he was clearly not satisfied with the idea of being bossed around by the newcomer, that had only been with the ship for a single day.

But before he could really give it all that much thought he was told that the Core Splendor was ready to head out.

Which meant that it did not take long before both of the gundams and Nicol's GOUF was out there, while Lunamaria and Rey was forced to wait behind for further orders.

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Once outside the three Zaft pilots took a quick look around at all the Windams gather around the ship.

But it was only when Shinn noticed that the Chaos was there too. That he brought an end to the slightly tense atmosphere, that had fell over them at the sight of how many enemies they where up against.

"So that one is here too, this time I'll take him out for sure!" The Impulse pilot yelled out in a determined tone.

Just before he pulled out on of the beam sabers and took of towards the green mobile suit, that he had already been facing so many times in the past.

But before he had the opportunity to even get close to the enemy gundam he fell under attack by five of the Windams.

And after cutting one of them down with the beam saber. He hurried got the rifle out again, and fired a well placed shot in to the chest area at the one Windam that was brainless enough to attack him from the front.

And once that one was out of the way he turned and fired a few more shots after another one of the white mobile suits.

Doing his best to make certain that none of his opponents had many chance to fight back. But as he was doing that he was suddenly attacked by a purple Windam that came flying with full speed towards him, firing of it's own beam rifle at the Impulse, forcing Shinn to use his shield to defend himself.

And just as the mobile suit flew right past him he hurried fired of the two machine guns in the Impulse chest area.

Forcing his opponent to evade sharply to the side, which was an opportunity Shinn quickly used to fire a few beams after the Windam. But much to his irritation none of the beams even came close to their intend target.

"Damn that guy is fast!" He yelled out. And was just about to take off after the purple mobile suit, that by now was flying around down by the ocean.

He did however not get all that far, when he was suddenly attacked by another group of Windams that was firing one beam after another after him.

But these guys was not nearly as good as the bastard inside the purple Windam.

So it really didn't take all that long before Shinn was fighting back with everything he got, he was completely determined to take down as many of the morons around him as possible, that way he could hurry after the more dangerous one of the Windams.

It was after all quite challenging taking down a person this good, and after using a few minutes to get rid of the closed Windams.

He once more chased of after the obvious leader of the bunch.

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Meanwhile Athrun had just finished taking down one of the Windams that had been attacking the Minerva.

After that he took a quick glance out at the Impulse that was still fighting about seven of the Earth Alliance mobile suits all on his own.

"Damn why did he run off like that?" Athrun asked in a displeased tone, just as he used the beam rifle to shoot down another one of the Windams.

But even as he was doing that, a small part of him was a bit angry at the way Shinn had taken off, without even thinking twice about his action, they where suppose stay near the Minerva and protect it.

Not do something so illogical as what Shinn had just done, by immediately rushing off to fight the Chaos.

The pilot of the Impulse might just carry some kind of grudge against the Chaos and it's pilot. But that certainly did not mean, he could do whatever he pleased.

Athrun had already made up an idea about how to take care of all the opponents out here. But before he could even try and explain his strategy for this battle to the two other pilots.

Shinn had decided to do battle on his own, and he hadn't even gotten anywhere near his green target before he was attack by the many Windams swarming around all over the place.

And even from all the way back here, Athrun could see that dark haired boy was having some serious problems dealing with a purple mobile suit that kept on attacking every single time, the opportunity showed itself.

But before Nicol could even begin explaining to Athrun that it was normal for Shinn to fight so reckless.

The Chaos dropped down from one of the clouds where it immediately fired off it's beam rifle and a great deal of other things down at the Saviour, that quickly transformed in to it's mobile armor mode and rolled away from the heavy attack.

Once somewhat safe Athrun got the Saviour back to it's standard mode where he hurried shoot off the plasma cannons up after the green gundam, that made a quick manoeuvre to the side, so the two red beams flew right past it.

Seeing him do that Athrun once more got the Saviour over in it mobile armor mode and took of after the enemy mobile suit that was still shooting after him with every single long range weapon it got.

"Nicol you stay back and cover the Minerva, while I take care of this guy!" Athrun yelled out.

Just before the Saviour disappeared in to one of the more thick clouds. Only reappear a second later, in it's mobile suit mode where it immediately fire both the beam rifle and the two plasma cannons at the Chaos.

But just as it seemed like the attacks was going to do some serious damage to the Chaos.

It hurried got it's shield up to take care of the single green beam that was coming right at him.

After that the enemy gundam rolled to the side to evade the next attack from the Saviour. But even as it was doing that, Athrun quickly took aim at the green gundam and once more fired of the plasma cannons after it.

Unfortunately the red beams didn't even came close to hitting the mobile suit.

Before the enemy piloted decided to use the same trick Athrun had used not long ago, by taking cover down in one of the clouds, that was pretty much floating around all over the place.

But even true Athrun couldn't see where the guy had disappeared to.

It didn't even take a minute before a small rain of beams flew straight at him from above.

Not even bothering to try and evade the attacks Athrun quickly manoeuvred the Saviour in between the first two beams then used the shield to take care of the rest of the heavy assault.

But even while doing that he fired of the beam rifle in to the cloud, but not all that surprisingly the Chaos wasn't there any longer.

Seeing that Athrun quickly transformed the Saviour in to mobile armor mode again, and took off full speed, not wanting to set himself up as an easy target by staying still to long.

And he had only just gotten his red gundam moving, when another attack came flying at him from behind. But that pretty much only served to tell Athrun where his opponent was hiding.

So after evading and getting past the whole assault, Athrun manoeuvre the Saviour directly above the thick cloud where he hurried transformed once more and let the gundam drop straight down in to the Chaos' hiding place with one of the beam sabers out.

And he had only just gotten in there when he spotted the green mobile suit just hanging there looking around, obviously trying to find him.

But before it had the opportunity to even noticed what was going on.

Athrun got down directly in front of the Chaos, where he immediately slammed the beam saber out towards the stolen gundam. But just as it looked like he was about to pierce the Chaos' cockpit and kill the pilot inside.

The green gundam quickly got it's shield up to defend itself and it was only a second later before it pulled out it's own beam saber and hammered it out after Athrun only to hit the shield too.

Which meant that now the two mobile suit was struggling quite hard to over power each other. But when the Chaos activated the two beam blades it had stored in both of it's feet and kicked out after the Saviour.

Athrun quickly throw himself backwards to avoid the attack.

And to make certain that the Chaos couldn't get anywhere near him while he was doing that, he hurried took aim and fired of the two plasma cannons at the green mobile suit, that of course evade up over the attacks while heading right for him.

And it was only a split second later when the two gundams slammed their beams sabers together again.

Now once more struggling hard for control, both pilots completely determined to win over each other no matter what.

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Meanwhile the Minerva was having a somewhat easy task taking down the few Windams that somehow succeed in getting past Nicol.

Who was still fighting hard to keep the Earth Forces mobile suits distracted.

But as the ship continued it's present course. Another hostility unit was hastily approaching them from by the deep blue ocean. Quite obviously planing to attack them from below.

"Captain the Abyss is closing in! The Nyiragongo is already sending out it's GOOhNs to intercept it!" Meyrin yelled in a loud tone, while she tried her best to figure out what the blue gundam was up to down in the water.

But unfortunately it was quite hard to see, just what exactly the water type mobile suit was doing, they where after all quite the distance away from it.

And before she could come up with a solution that would permitted them to see the Abyss gundam clearly. The captain yelled out a few orders to get Lunamaria and Rey ready to head on down there and help out, the already fighting GOOhNs.

Hearing the woman said that Meyrin immediately altered her task.

It wasn't like seeing the Abyss would actually help them out all that much in defeating the enemy mobile suit. And it was only shortly after that before the two ZAKUs left the Minerva, each of them armed with a bazooka.

And after watching those two disappear down in to the ocean.

Talia turned and looked back at Meyrin. "What is the Impulse and the Saviour doing right NOW?" The woman asked in a loud tone.

Truly wondering what in the world where keeping Athrun and Shinn so busy at the moment. That they could not help Nicol take care of all the Earth Forces mobile suits, that just kept on coming at them.

It actually was a bit amazing that Nicol was able to keep as many of them occupied, and the few of them that somehow succeed in getting past him, was only able to do that when his attention was turned towards another opponent.

It actually made Talia wonder a bit why the boy hadn't been assign to a gundam too. She had after all heard quite a bit about everything he had done while piloting the Blitz.

"Make sure to take down all the mobile suits that gets past Nicol! So they don't get the opportunity to attack him from behind!" The brown haired woman yelled in a loud tone.

Just as all of them witness the green haired boy cutting down yet another one of the Windams, that was buzzing around all over the place.

After that Arthur yelled out for the Tristans to be fired at three incoming Windams that was clearly trying to find a weakness in the Minerva's defenses.

Yet when two of them where shoot down, the last one immediately tried to get away from the ship. But he didn't get very far before Nicol wrapped his GOUF's heat rod around the Windam's body, and sent of a few thousand volt in to the machine.

And once that one blow up he hurried turned and wrapped the deadly weapon around another Windam, giving it the exact same treatment as the last Earth Forces mobile suit.

And after seeing that one crash down in to the ocean.

He immediately began firing the beam gun on the GOUF's right arm out towards a third Windam that was trying to shoot him down with it's beam rifle.

But whoever was inside the Earth Forces machine, had a bit more skill in using the mass-produced mobile suit then the two previous once.

But after dog fighting for a few very long minutes.

Nicol finally succeed in blasting a few holes through the hull of the Windam, making it blow up not all that far away from him. But just after seeing the mobile suit blow up.

Two beams came flying directly towards Nicol, completely destroying the left leg on the yellow GOUF, and once the shaking had finally stopped Nicol took a short glance down at his GOUF to see how bad the damage was.

But when it became clear for him that he could still fight, he hurried pulled out the beam sword and took of straight towards the mobile suits responsible for the damage.

"I have to take this guy out fast, so I can continue protecting the Minerva!" The green haired boy said in a very determined voice, while taking a glance around after the Impulse.

Where the heck was Shinn at a time like this, what in the world was he doing right now, the GOUF piloted wonder. Just as he slammed the beam sword out after his new opponent.

That quickly rolled to the side while firing it's beam rifle back after him, obviously trying to do even more damages to Nicol's yellow mobile suit.

Not that the Windam pilot had much luck with that idea.

And once Nicol began shooting back with his own long range weapon, the white mobile suit hurried began retreating away from him with great haste.

Still using it's beam rifle to make sure that there was still some distance between them.

But even with all the beams coming at him, Nicol really didn't have much trouble getting in close to the enemy mobile suit, that once more quickly retreated away from him, clearly hoping to somehow shake Nicol off, but the green haired boy just kept on follow the Windam no matter what it did to get rid of him.

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Elsewhere on the battlefield.

Neo was still being chased by the Impulse that was pretty much doing everything possible to take him out.

But because he made sure to keep moving around no matter what.

None of the beams that was fired at him, even came close to hitting him. But even true he hadn't taken any damage yet, he could not help but feel a little impressed by how talented the Impulse pilot was getting.

"He is really improving a lot. I wonder if he would be interested in working together with us!" Neo mumbled with a small smirk on his face. Just as he hurried turned around and fired of two shots up towards the Impulse aiming one of them at the head and the other at the cockpit.

But before any of the beams could get in contact with the gundam, the mobile suit quickly rolled to the side and fired of two beams back after him.

Which Neo evade by cutting the thrust down a bit so both shots flew directly over the Windam. After that he once more got his purple mobile suit moving just as two more green beams came flying straight at him.

"Hmm maybe it's not a good idea for us to be working together with this fellow! Somebody could get hurt having him around!" The blond man said, while firing a few more beams up at the Impulse that hurried used it's red shield to defend himself from the attacks. While still chasing after him with the same almost insane eagerness as before.

It actually seemed a bit like the Impulse pilot had completely forgotten both the Minerva and everything else around him.

Which in Neo's eyes was quite a good thing.

If this guy wasn't back there to defending the ship. There was a very good chance that Sting and Auel could somehow get past all of the ship's many weapons and destroy it.

But before he could think all that long about that two more beams flew past him, almost taking off the right arm straight of his mobile suit. "Ok, perhaps I should keep my attention on what I'm doing right now. Not what Sting and Auel is up to!" The mask man said, as he rolled sideways and fire a few shots back at the Impulse that duck down under the few beams he had just fired.

It was just about that time that Neo noticed that him and the Impulse was getting closer and closer to land.

"Apparently it's going to be very hard taking this guy down on my own. But perhaps Stella wouldn't mind giving me a hand with this fellow!" Neo mumbled quietly to himself, while taking one last glance at the gundam that was still flying around not that far behind him.

Which actually made a small smile ran over his lips, as he hurried change course and began flying full speed over the somewhat rocky beach below him, still with the Zaft gundam right on his heels.

But he hadn't gotten all that far, before he saw Stella's black four legged gundam coming with great haste towards them. And knowing what the blond girl was about to do, Neo quickly manoeuvred the Windam back up in to the air.

Where he immediately turned around and fired two shoots down at the Impulse.

Just as the Gaia gundam left the ground and jumped with full speed straight in to the Impulse, knocking both of them completely over.

Seeing that Neo was about to fire a few shots in to the back of the enemy gundam. But before he could do that, two red beams came flying straight towards him.

Which forced him to evade so he wouldn't get hit be the attack. And it was only a short second later before he saw the red mobile suit and the Chaos coming right at him, both of them fighting quite violently with each other.

"Damn I almost had that other guy!" The mask man mumbled in a slightly angry tone.

While he took off to help Sting against the Saviour, that did everything possible to keep both Sting and himself away from the battle that was now going on between the Gaia and the Impulse.

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At the same time down on the ground both gundams slammed their beam sabers together.

Each of them trying their hardest to somehow knock their opponent over, yet both mobile suits stayed firmly on their feet.

Just as the Gaia gundam did a quick jump backward, while firing off the two machine guns that was installed in it's head.

But Shinn just narrowed his eyes a bit as he ignored the smaller attack, and charged forward and once more slammed his beam saber out at the Gaia. That of course used it's own saber to counter the attack.

But before Shinn could try anything else, he suddenly heard a female voice that sound almost like it was just on the edge of being hysterical.

"DAMN YOU! I hate you so much, you stupid BASTARD!" The voice said loudly.

Which made Shinn wonder a bit where exactly that angry voice could be coming from. And it took him a few seconds to realize, that it was the pilot of the enemy mobile suit he was fighting right now, that was talking to him in such a crazy tone.

And before he could do anything to stop himself he said the very first thing that enter his mind. "What but you...you are a girl!" he said in a somewhat surprised tone.

Just as the Gaia once more rushed towards him, still with the beam saber ready to strike, and it was only a brief moment later before both their weapons meet each other one more time.

"What the heck did you expect me to be you moron! A Marsman perhaps?" Stella yelled out in a truly hateful tone, just as she gave the Impulse gundam a hard kick straight in to it's stomach area, making it take a few steps backwards, away from her to avoid falling over.

And before the bastard had the time to do anything else, Stella got the Gaia over in it's four legged mode and charge after the Impulse with full speed.

Now even more determined to knock the enemy gundam over. She truly wanted to kill this disrespectful bastard. That quite obviously didn't think that a female could pilot a gundam.

But just as she was about to land on top of the Impulse so she could tear the whole thing apart.

Her opponent suddenly turned and slammed his shield in to the side of the Gaia, sending it straight over in to a few trees, that was quite easily knock over because of the Gaia's weight.

After that the four legged mobile suit landed quite hard on it's back, which actually did frightened the blond haired girl a bit. She truly hadn't expected that the bastard would do something like that

And to make certain that the foolish idiot wouldn't attack her while she was still down.

Stella hurried transformed the Gaia back in to it's mobile suit mode, where she quickly pulled out the beam rifle and fired a few shoots after the Impulse.

That immediately jumped to the side to avoid the few beams she was firing after him.

"Damn you! Why don't you just stand still you brat, so I can be really kind to you?" She asked loudly. Just as she saw the Impulse coming right at her with it's beam saber out obviously still wanting to fight this battle in close combat.

Something Stella really didn't mind all that much, she was actually looking forward to smack her beam saber straight into the Impulse's cockpit.

And it did not take long before the dark haired boy and the blonde haired girl was struggling hard against each other. Both of them determined to make sure that only one of them left this battle still breathing.

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And while those two where having fun down on the ground.

Neo was watching them with a somewhat thoughtful look on his face, until he slowly turned and looked over at the red gundam.

Just as it shoot down the last of the Windams they had borrowed not long ago, only to start fighting with the Chaos right after. And even true Sting was really doing everything he could, to take down the red Zaft mobile suit.

It was becoming more and more obvious that there was no way he could win against that guy on his own. And one look back at the Gaia made it clear that it could take a very long time before Stella or the Impulse pilot would go down.

"Damn this isn't getting us anywhere!" He muttered somewhat displeased, as he fired a few more shots after the Saviour that quickly rolled to the side to avoid his attacks.

But even while it was doing that, Neo got in contact with his three comrades.

"Ok you guys we are leaving, there is no reason for us to stay here any longer!" The mask said in a bossy tone, that he knew for certain the three teens would listen to and obey.

But before he could say anything else to them.

He noticed that the Saviour was coming right at him.

And seeing as there was no way they could win this fight now. Neo truly didn't feel like doing battle with the red mobile suit. And fortunately before the Zaft machine could even begin attacking him.

Sting dropped down and fired of every single weapon the Chaos had after the fast moving red mobile suit, that of course immediately turned it's attention towards avoiding the heavy attack from the Chaos.

And now that the Saviour was occupied with something else.

Neo was just about to once more told the three kids that they where leaving this area and that there was no way they could finish their new base now.

He did however not get the opportunity say any of those things, when suddenly Auel cut him off quite loudly.

"Why the hell do we have to leave now? This is just starting to get fun!" The blue haired boy asked in a unhappy tone, while waiting somewhat impatiently for Neo to give him some kind of response to his question.

He just didn't get why they couldn't stay there any longer. He seriously wanted to make sure, that this small meeting with them, was one the Minerva would not forget anytime soon.

And he hadn't done that yet.

He might have smash up the three GOOhNs the idiotic Vosgulov class had send out after him. But that was not nearly enough to satisfied him, he need to do even more harmful things to the Zaft forces gather there.

But even as he sat there trying to figure out what else he could do.

He suddenly heard Neo telling him, that all of the Windams that had been with them at the begin of this battle had been taken out. And that it wouldn't be long now before the gundams would start running low on power.

"Damn you miserable loses, can't you do anything right?" He complained in a tone, that made it completely clear that this was bothering him quite a bit.

But even while being this angry he still manage to evade up over another missile the white ZAKU fired towards him. After that he immediately tried to shoot the two ZAKUs down.

But both of them was somehow able to avoided his attacks, not that he cared all that much about that right now.

He was far more busy listening to everything Neo was saying back to him. "You are one to talk about doing things right Auel, as far as I know you didn't take out any big targets either!" The mask man said back.

And just hearing those words was more enough to piss Auel all the more off.

There was just no choice now.

He had to make Zaft suffer now, and he already had a pretty good idea about what to do.

And with that in mind he quickly transformed the Abyss in to mobile armor mode.

Then turned around and took off towards the Vosgulov class, determined to make a few pretty holes in that damn piece junk. And once he had taken out the last the it's submarine's GOOhNs.

It did not take long before all the missiles the Abyss had left was fired straight towards Vosgulov class, that clearly tried hard to evade his attacks.

But there was just no way for the Zaft bastards to survive this, and once Auel had seen the grey submarine blow up, he let out a big happy laugh as he turned away from the sad remains of the Zaft Vosgulov class.

And sailed of full speed away from the territory, before any of the ZAKUs that was approaching him from behind could send of even more missiles after him.

"Hah! That's one big target for me and none for you!" The Abyss pilot bragged in a childish yet proud tone. While he continued heading back towards the John Paul Jones, not even bothering to take the time to wait for the others.

He want to get back to the ship as fast as possible, so he could do some serious bragging to the crew about what he had just done to that Vosgulov class.

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Hearing the blue haired boy's boasting so loudly.

Neo slowly rolled his eyes a single time, while he looked down after the Gaia that still hadn't given up on trying to defeat the Impulse.

And just seeing the somewhat reckless and brutal fighting style Stella was using at the moment. Was enough to make it very clear for him, that the enemy mobile suit was getting more and more on Stella's nerves.

The careless way she kept leaving herself open every single time she tried to cut down the Impulse with her saber.

Was enough for him to realize that it would only be a matter of time before the Zaft pilot would noticed that small weakness.

And knowing that, Neo once more call out after the blond girl, truly hoping that she would listen to him this time. He seriously did not wanted to resort to something more drastic, to get her away from area and the Impulse.

"Stella that's enough we are leaving this place before the Gaia can run out of power!" The mask man said still using that bossy tone. That he deeply hoped would be enough to make the stubborn female teenager retreat away from the Impulse. Before she would end up getting seriously injured or even killed, by fighting with that machine.

But not all that shocking the girl did have something to say about his decision to retreat.

"But Neo, I really wants to slaughter this guy. He is even more annoying now, then the last time I fought him!" She yelled with a deep anger in her voice, as she again tried to drill her saber in thought the Impulse's cockpit.

Yet before her weapon even got close, the other machine hurried jumped back to get some distance between them.

Those few words did make a somewhat thoughtful look run over Neo's face, as he tried to come up with a way to get the girl to leave before she actually ended up getting herself killed by the Impulse gundam.

And finally after a short minute or two he let out a small breath.

"Ok Stella what if I say that the next time we run in to the Minerva, you can have the Impulse all to yourself, that way you can be the one to destroy it!" Neo told her, feeling slightly concerned about how close the Impulse's was getting in stabbing it's beam saber, straight through the Gaia's somewhat exposed cockpit.

But before the deadly weapon could really do any serious damage, to Stella or to the black mobile suit.

The girl suddenly jumped quite far away from her opponent and took a small glance up at him. "You promise Neo? I can get this one all to myself right?" She asked in a sweet tone.

That actually made Neo wonder a bit, how in the world she could behave so innocent and childlike even in the midst of combat.

Those thoughts however did not linger in his mind for long. Before he noticed that the Impulse was moving around in a strange way, obviously getting ready to attack one more time.

Seeing that he again looked back at the Gaia. "Ok Stella it's a promise, now hurry up and get away before he can attack again!" Neo yelled again glaring back at the Impulse to see what it was doing now.

But just as it seemed like it was going to enter battle with the Gaia again, the black mobile suit transformed and ran off without looking back once.

And with the stubborn blond haired girl now out of danger, there wasn't really any need for Neo or Sting to waste any more valuable time there.

So after taking one last at the Impulse and the red mobile suit, that neither of them knew the name on. They both turned around and took of in the direction where the John Paul Jones was suppose to be waiting for them.

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Seeing that the Gaia was now gone Shinn hurried continued on.

He wanted to save all of those people, that apparently was being forced to work on the new bass the Earth Forces was building in this area, and it wasn't really all that hard to free them, since most of their defenses had pretty much been reduced to nothing at all.

And after destroying a few smaller cannons with the Impulse's machine guns it did not take him long, before he could let all of the prisoners out.

That immediately ran down to greet their families, that had been waiting for them outside of the big fence he had just pulled up from the ground not long.

But while he was so busy looking around for anything that could threaten the happy reunion that was going on down by his mobile suit's feet. He did not noticed that both Athrun and Nicol was looking down at him from above.

And before Shinn could make completely sure that there was no more Earth Forces soldiers around, that could cause any more trouble for all these cheerful people.

Athrun suddenly called out his name one more time. He had actually been doing that quite a lot in this battle. But this time however it sound much more demanding and serious, then the last few time.

"Shinn return to the Minerva immediately, that's an **order**!" The blue hair boy said, still not moving away from his position above the Impulse.

He wanted to make sure that Shinn was going to follow his orders this time around. He hadn't done that once since the battle started, even true Athrun had told him to go back and help Nicol more then a few times.

The last time Athrun had told him to do something was when Shinn had just began doing battle with the Gaia. But when Athrun had told him to retreat away from the black mobile suit.

Shinn had just yelled out for him to shut up, and that he could beat this damn thing with trouble at all. It did however seemed like the boy had the intention of doing what he said this time around.

And as both Nicol and him saw the Impulse take a few steps away from the civilians down there. He activated the thrusts and got the gundam back up in to the air.

Once he got up beside them he didn't say anything at first, he just looked at them for a few seconds, before he asked how long they where planing to hang around up there like this.

But neither Athrun or Nicol felt like having a long conversation with him at the moment.

So they just turned around and began making their way back to the Minerva.

"Hm what was that about?" Shinn wonder quietly.

Before he took off after his two team mates, that still didn't say anything to him, which was actually somewhat odd. Truth was he had quite honestly expected that they had a lot to say to him once the battle was over.

Not just sit around in a deep silence without making at least one single sound.

And when he saw the Saviour take a short glance back at him, he was fully prepared for Athrun to began yelling at him.

But much to his small surprise, it did not take long before the piloted of the red mobile suit once more turned his attention back towards the Minerva, that was getting more and more visible the closer they got to it.

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It was only a few minutes later when the three mobile suits enter the already opened hangar.

Once in there Nicol's GOUF was laid down on the floor, while the two gundams continued a bit further in to the ship, and was soon standing over by the wall.

Where each return to it's normal grey colour, after that it only took a second before the Saviour's cockpit flew open and Athrun began making his descend down to the floor.

Once down there, he took a quick glance over the few mechanics. That apparently wanted to ask with him about something, most likely if there was anything they need to do on the Saviour.

But before any of them could even get a single word out.

Athrun hurried went past them and towards the Impulse, where he could clearly see Shinn busy talking with Yolant and Vino about his achievements in the battle they had just been in.

The conversation however didn't really last for long, when Athrun walked in between them. And before any of them could figure out, what he was doing he lifted his hand and gave Shinn a very hard slap across the left side of his face.

"What the HECK WAS THAT FOR?" The Impulse pilot yelled so loud, that it could no doubt be heard through the entire hangar.

But even with the loud volume Athrun just continued standing there looking at Shinn with a somewhat unreadable expression on his face. But finally after a few very long seconds, the blue hair Saviour pilot let out a small breath.

As he once more began talking to Shinn. "I don't get how you got to be a soldier when you obviously can't obey orders. Just think about what could have happened to Nicol or the Minerva while you where out there chasing around after that purple Windam" Athrun said calm yet angry tone.

While he stood there waiting to hear what Shinn had to say about this.

And he didn't have to wait long before Shinn found something to say back.

"That bullshit! I took out more then half of the Windams out there, and I almost beat the Gaia too!" He yelled out, truly angry that Athrun had dared to hit him like this when he had done so much out there.

Athrun however just rised his right eyebrow a bit.

He just couldn't help but feel a somewhat disappointed that the boy hadn't even realized his mistake. So after looking at him a bit longer Athrun once more began speaking in the same somewhat hush tone as before.

"That has nothing at all to do with why I hit you Shinn. The reason why I did that was because you obviously don't think about your actions. You are suppose to be a Zaft soldier Shinn, not some crazy run amok hero who can't take responsibility for his own actions!"

And with those words out, Athrun pretty much felt like he had said everything he wanted to say to the other pilot.

And truly satisfied with that, the blue haired young man slowly turned away. And began making his way towards the exit of the hangar, with everybody else down there looking after him, until he was out of sight.

But before any of them could start talking about what had just happened, another person had something to tell the pilot of the Impulse.

"I too most admit, that I'm deeply disappointed in the way you handle the situation out there Shinn!" Nicol said, doing nothing to hide how thoughtless and completely reckless he thought Shinn's behaviour had been in the last battle.

So after standing there for a moment or two, looking straight in to Shinn's eyes.

Nicol gave him one last disapproval look.

Before he slowly made his way back over to his damage mobile suit. Wanting to hear how much time it would take, before his yellow GOUF would once more be fully ready for combat.

Thinking hard about everything his two team mates had just told him, Shinn finally muttered out a few unhappy curses.

As he quickly stormed out of the hangar before anybody else had the opportunity to say anything else to him, that would only serve to make him even more angry about this whole event.

He truly despised the idea of those two telling him that he had done something wrong. Especially when he had beaten the crap out of so many Earth Forces mobile suits, and saved so many innocence people.

But as he was taking off like that he didn't hear what some of the other people down there was saying.

"Don't you think they where a bit hard on him? I mean he did after all do a good very job out there" Luna said still.

Thinking about the little display between Shinn and the two other pilots, but before she could give it all that much thought the second ZAKU pilot on the Minerva told them his opinion about the whole affair.

"No I don't believe so Lunamaria. I'm sure that both of them have properly already realize that Shinn did a good job today. That however has nothing to do with the reason why they are angry at him. Shinn has to be taught, that he can't always disobey orders, whenever he feels like it" Rey explained, while looked away from the red hair girl and back at the Impulse.

Wondering a few seconds about if this would somehow effect the boy's fighting abilities in the gundam.

But knowing Shinn, he would most likely be even more determined now to show Athrun and Nicol how well he could fight in the next battle.

Which was truly a good thing, perhaps if Shinn continued improving with such a fast pace he might be ready to face off against Kira Yamato and the Freedom much sooner then him and Gilbert had ever expected.

"A bit longer now and we should be ready for it" Rey mumbled quietly to himself, as he turned and walked off without saying anything else, and not noticing the strange look Lunamaria was sending him as he disappeared out of the hangar.

And with him out of sight the female pilot let out a big sigh, as she too mumbled out a few words. "Why in the world, do I have to be the only sane piloted on board the Minerva?" The girl asked, while heading over towards Nicol's mobile suit.

Ever since she had gotten to know the former Blitz pilot, she had never once seen him behave like that before.

Which was something that actually worried her a bit, so she need to make sure that he was all right, before she began helping out with her own damage mobile suit.

Once up on the GOUF Luna immediately moved over to Nicol. That had just finished discussion the repairs on his mobile suit, and was now just sitting there with a thoughtful expression all over his face.

"Hey you, are you ok Nicol?" She asked, while dropping down beside him, watching him with a worried look in both of her eyes.

And just when she thought he hadn't heard her question and was about to repeat it.

Nicol slowly lifted his gaze over towards her.

"I'm all right Luna, I'm just feeling somewhat exhaust after everything that has been going on today. I know we won the battle, but it wasn't like it was done with great team work or something like that, just try and give it some thought Luna" He said, while thinking back to how the battle had gone.

It truly had been somewhat messed up.

But just as the girl was about to say something back, Nicol again began talking to her in that far away tone.

"We all pretty much fought by our self today. The only once that actually worked together was you and Rey, while I was fighting with Windams, Athrun was keeping the Chaos occupied, and Shinn was running around all over the place" Nicol explained, as he gave Lunamaria a small tired smile.

That truly made the red haired girl think very hard about his words.

And it only took a couple minutes before she came to the conclusion that Nicol was right about everything he had just said.

There hadn't really been all that much team work, in the fight they had been in not long ago.

It had been kinda messed up the way they had all been fighting. "Maybe next time, we will be able to do better!" She said in a determined tone, truly hoping that she could somehow cheer her friend up.

It just didn't suit Nicol to be this depressed.

He was normally such a nice and gentle person, that was pretty much always in a good mood, and she quite frankly prefer that over the depressing way he was behaving right now.

But much to her small disappointment, Nicol just gave her one more sad smile, as he again began talking in that creepy far away tone.

"The only way we will be able to work together as a real team is when Shinn, accept that Athrun is the one handing out orders, and the way he behaves that might take some time. You know as well as I do that Shinn doesn't like the idea of being bossed around, especially by a newcomer" Nicol said.

Just as he slowly leaned back, so he end up laying stretch out on top of his GOUF, just looking up at the ceiling with a worn out look on his face.

Thinking a bit about Nicol's words it didn't take long for Lunamaria to realize that he was right. Shinn never did like it when other people was bossing him around and telling him what to do.

She only had to remember their days at the academy to know that, the first instructor they had when they got there had been fun and well liked by pretty much everybody, even Shinn.

But the next one had been much more strict in his class' and not half as fun, as the first one.

And that man was not one Shinn had liked so it had taken a very long time for that instructor to get him to do what he said. It was only when he had threaten to throw Shinn out of the academy.

That Shinn had finally started to do some of the things the man had asked of him. But no matter what those task was, they where certainly not done with a great deal of respect.

For some reason Shinn could always find some inventive way to get that man angry at him. Even when doing whatever the bossy instructor had asked of him.

And just the thought alone about how many times Shinn had argued with that man, was all Luna needed to let out a truly big sigh.

"Ahhh man! All of us going to be dead and buried, before we can work together as a real team" she grumbled unhappy, as she laid down on the GOUF beside Nicol.

Now also watching the ceiling, with the exact same kind of expression, as the one Nicol had on his face.

Hearing her say that Nicol let out a small chuckle, while he continued resting peacefully there on top of his mobile suit.

"I think you are exaggerating a bit Lunamaria, I'm sure that everything will be fine, you just wait and see" he said before taking a brief glance over at her, where he saw her nod a single time in agreement.

Happy to see that, he once more rested his tired head on his already fold up arms.

After that nothing else was said between them. They just continued laying there for a long time, truly enjoying the thought that they didn't have to fight anymore today.

To be continued.


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19

It was out by the coast of the Kingdom of Scandinavia.

Everything was just so nice and peaceful, something a father and his little boy was enjoying by trying to catch a fish or two.

But even true things seemed so calm on the ocean surface. Neither of them realized that far below them, in the deep blue water, a certain white space ship was hiding out at the bottom of the sea.

And they had far least idea about what was going on inside the ship.

Where a big part of the crew was gather up on the bridge, some of them drinking a cup of nice hot coffee, while Mayu and a few others was satisfied with a nice cup of hot chocolate instead.

"It's the same news every day, can't they at least try and tell us something that is a bit more cheerful?" Andy asked clearly not happy about what was on TV.

Hearing him say that, Dearka turned and took a look over at the man.

"Well if you don't want to watch this. There is a good game show on one of the other canals I would like to see" the Murasame piloted said, while pouring the rest of his hot chocolate down in to his mouth.

After that he placed the red cup on the floor and sat down beside, now again looking over at the monitor.

Those words did make both Murrue and Andrew laugh a bit.

As the captain of the Archangel share her opinion about what was being showed on screens. "Perhaps if we zap around a bit, we might find something with a white dolphin getting a cute little baby" the woman suggest with a small smile on her face.

Yet before either Andy or Dearka could say anything to that.

Mayu's voice cut it to the conversation.

"That's sound very boring mom, I would much rather see something with a few monsters and zombies messing up a town!" She said, thinking about the last time she had seen a real good horror movie.

Unfortunately she didn't get to see much of that film, when her mother had discovered what she was watching and send her to bed.

"Not to be a spoilsport. But I do think your suggest is way to cheerful miss Murrue, while yours Mayu is way to spooky" Lacus said, thinking back to how frightened she had been, that one time when her little sister figure had asked her to see one of those scary movies. Where monsters was running around pretty much all over the place.

And after the movie was finally over and she had gone to bed.

She had end up keeping Kira awake for most of the night, simply because she was feeling so uneasy, that she couldn't fall asleep.

Which meant that most of the night was spend wrestling and kicking around. And it was only when Kira had pulled her in to a secure embrace, that she was finally able to get some much needed shut-eye, after being awake for so many hours.

And once the two of them had woken up the next day, Kira had asked about what had made her feel so uneasy. And when she was done explaining everything to him.

He had gotten a slightly thoughtful look on his face, then asked her not to see those kind of movies ever again.

When they made her feel so uncomfortable that she couldn't even sleep properly, and it hadn't even taken her two seconds to promised Kira that she would never let Mayu talk her in to seeing films like that ever again.

She did however not get long to think about that before Cagalli interrupted her thoughts about the past.

"Ok so we all agrees on not seeing something too merry or too scary. But what really caught my attention is that all of these news is kinda strange" the blond haired woman said, while looking at all the news reports that was busy babbling about mostly unimportant stuff that didn't really give them many clues about what was really going on.

And still with her attention turned towards the screen she once more continued talking in the same thoughtful tone as before.

"I mean all of them is about turmoil in the Alliance, there is nothing about fighting with the Plants, it's almost like they are trying to hide that we are actually at war!" Cagalli said, thinking hard about how the hell so many news canals, could be so completely useless.

That was when Murrue cut in, and told all of them her theory about why there wasn't anything more interesting in the news.

"I don't think they are trying to hide that we are at war Cagalli. I honestly think the reason why they are not talking about it. Is because the Alliance really have made themselves a complete laughingstock by going to war so quickly, after everything that happened at Junius Seven" the brown haired woman said.

While trying a bit to figure out if everybody up there agreed with her.

Hearing her say that Andrew took another big sip of his coffee, truly enjoying the taste of the brown hot liquid, as it slowly made it's way down his throat. And once the cup was empty, he turned his eyes away from the monitor and over at the captain of the Archangel.

"Yeah that was a pretty foolish idea, but if I had a guess, it was most likely Blue Cosmos idea. All of us knows better then most people how that groups function, and if there was a possibility for them to get the war started again. Then I have no doubt that they would take it!" the Desert Tiger said, thinking hard about just how much trouble that terrorist organization had made in the last war.

Those words didn't really have a big effect on the others up there.

All of them knew what Andrew meant. They had after all seen just how far Blue Cosmos was willing to go, to destroy all Coordinators. That was something they had proven again and again, since the very first day that terrorist group was created.

They did however not get long to think about that before Mayu suddenly cut in to their somewhat sad thoughts.

"There she is, do you see her? There is that dumb bitch, that runs around impersonating big sis Lacus" the brown haired girl yelled loudly, while jumping up and down a few times, and pointing up at screen.

Where they all saw the fake Lacus singing a song that had been completely change from the original version the real Lacus had made so long ago.

And just the sight of her dancing around like that, was more then enough to make a deep frown ran over Lacus forehead.

"Well at the very least they all seem to be having fun!" She muttered in a slightly angry voice, as she turned and looked away from the screen. Ever since the very first time she had seen her lookalike perform.

She had felt a small grudge build up towards the other girl. It wasn't the whole thing with her running around dressed up like her that made Lacus angry. It was that she kept on changing some of the songs she had work so hard to make.

Not many people knew about it. But some of those songs, the other girl kept on changing so freely. Was actually something Lacus had made as a way to honour and bid farewell to her mother when she had died.

So it truly sadden her deeply that somebody, would alter so many of her songs, without even considering her feelings about the matter.

It was just about that time, when somebody suddenly placed a hand on her shoulder, which immediately made her turn around to see who was back there, and once she got eye contact with her husband, she felt some of her sadness disappear.

And when Kira moved in and pulled her in to a small hug. And it did not take long before she was resting contently in his arms.

"Please don't be sad sweetheart, I know that girl bothers you a lot more then you let on. But no matter how much she alters your songs, she will never have the same ability to make them sound as lovely and beautiful as you do!" Kira said in a loud tone, while looking directly in to her still somewhat sadden eyes. And after standing there for a moment or two.

She softly tighten the grip she had on her husband. "Thank you Kira, you always makes me so happy" the girl said back still not moving away from the embrace, that the two of them where in right now.

It was only when Cagalli asked if they shouldn't do something about the fake Lacus that they moved away from each other, and looked over at the blond girl.

But before either of them could come up with a suggestion about what they should do, Dearka decided to tell them his thoughts about the matter.

"Why don't we just kidnap her? From what I have gather by seeing her last few performances. She is suppose to get down here very soon and give a concert to some of the Zaft soldiers stationed down here. Apparently her first stop is suppose to be at Diocuia" the boy said, thinking a few seconds about what other information he had before he once more continued talking.

"If we use the Freedom and my Murasame. It should be relatively easy enough to get in there and nap the little faker!" Dearka said, in a tone that made it very hard to figure out, if he was actually serious about what he had just said, or was just joking around.

So after minutes to try and figure that out, Andy decide to tell the others why that suggestion was a real bad idea.

"We might be able to pull something like that off. But by doing so, we will most likely end up giving away our location to the wrong people, and that would be very bad for the Kingdom of Scandinavia, considering they are hiding us" the man explained.

Obviously still trying to come up with an idea about what they should do about the fake Lacus.

"Yeah that would be bad. Beside we are already being blamed for taking Cagalli. And I seriously don't think, that having another kidnapping on our conscience will do us any good. And even if we did somehow manage to get our hands on her, the only thing we will get out of it, is drawing attention to ourselves" Kira said.

Sounding a bit thoughtful, as he continued watching the copy of his wife, jumping around up on the stage. But even as he was doing that, he couldn't help but wonder who the heck that girl really was, and where exactly she had appeared from.

But one thing that had became more and more obvious for Kira every time he saw the fake Lacus Clyne perform.

Was that somebody very high in the Zaft military had something to do with the strange girl, for some reason whenever she talked, it was always about how much Zaft wanted peace in the world and how they where working so hard to get it.

"I don't trust that girl" he mumbled just loud enough for all of them up there to heard.

Then reached out and took a hold on Lacus hand where he gave it a light gentle squeeze, which made her look away from the screen and over at him.

But before the two of them could say anything to each other.

Mayu yelled loudly that she too thought that it was a totally good idea to kidnap the fake big sister Lacus. If they did that, the real big sister Lacus wouldn't have to be sad, over having the other girl stealing her songs.

"I'm really happy that you are concerned about my feelings Mayu. But we can't do something like that, all of us here has to think about all of the families living here in Scandinavia, so if we where to abduct that girl. Zaft and a great deal of other people would most likely start searching for us. And if they somehow succeed in finding us, we might have to defend ourselves to get away. And that means that somebody up there could get badly hurt" Lacus explained in her usual kind tone, as she reached down and softly rubbed Mayu's hair in a gentle way.

"Ok, ok I understand no kidnapping. But it still don't like that dumb girl!" Mayu said loudly, while sending the fake Lacus up on the monitor, an angry glare that made it clear for everybody up, there that she really meant what she said.

That was when Andy reached down and gave the girl a few friendly pats on her head.

And just when it seemed like he was going to remove his hand again. He took the opportunity to mess up her hair a bit, he and everybody else up there knew how much it truly that bothered the girl if her hair wasn't sitting exactly right.

And the angry glare she was now giving him.

Was enough to tell him, that she wasn't thinking about the other Lacus Clyne anymore. "None of us really likes that girl Mayu. But for now it's best that we just leave her alone, and concentrate on finding out what Zaft's true agenda is!" Andy said in a somewhat far away tone, as he thought about the group of Zaft soldiers that had reduced their home in to a pile of rubble.

Hearing those words got Murrue to finally turn her attention away from the fake Lacus and over towards the Desert Tiger.

"I'm actually starting to doubt that Zaft is really up to something. Even when there was fired nuclear missiles at them, Chairman Durandal kept on insisting that they would only fight when they had to defend themselves. There was no hasty counterattacks or anything like that" the brown haired woman said, while thinking about how Zaft was handling the situation.

"And just seeing how violently the Earth Forces keeps on doing things, kinda makes me want to take Zaft side in this conflict and teach the Earth Forces a lesson" Murrue said, as she thought a few seconds about how it would be like, to be fighting alongside the Zaft forces.

One thing she was certain of, was that if the Archangel and the Minerva was to end up fighting on the same side. It would almost be impossible to stop the two space ships.

And she seriously wouldn't mind working together with the captain of the Minerva, she was a very pleasant and kind person. That Murrue had enjoyed talking with a lot.

"I really don't think it's a good idea for us to join up with Zaft miss Murrue. We still don't know who send those assassins after Lacus. So if we showed up at a Zaft base now, there is a high possibility that somebody would try and kill her again!" Kira said in a tone, that made it obvious, that there was no way he was ever going to change his mind about this.

Thinking about those words over for a second or two.

Murrue nodded softly in agreement as she took a small glance over at her daughter, that was sitting over by the wall, busy playing with Haro, that was slowly rolling around just in front of her.

And just the sight of her having such a nice time was enough to make Murrue smile a bit, as a thoughtful frown ran over her forehead.

Kira was right there was no way they could risk trying to join up with Zaft. If they did something like that, there was a big chance that they could all end up in some very serious danger.

And their was no way she would risk both the life of her crew and her daughter, in trying to help a bunch of people. That might just show their gratitude by trying to take their lives away.

"You are right Kira, there is no way we can trust Zaft or Durandal, we need to find some clues about what that man is really up to" the woman said, while turning her eyes away from Mayu and over towards Kira.

That was just standing there beside his wife and sister with a deep thoughtful expression on his face. That made it clear that he was thinking very hard about something, most likely what was really happening around the world.

But before he had the opportunity to voice any of those thought, Mayu suddenly jumped up from the floor with a displeased look in both of her eyes.

"I seriously don't feel like talking about the Earth Forces or Zaft anymore, it's just so depressing and completely boring. So if there is nothing for me to do up here, I think I'll go down and take a dip in the hot spring, after that I might swing by the hangar to annoy grandpa Murdoch a bit" the girl said, with an wicked grin on her face.

It was always so entertaining pulling pranks on the chief engineer, he always got so angry at her and that was hilarious, especially when he began yelling at her to never come back to the hangar ever again.

But as she was planing what kind of prank she should pull of once she got down there. Her mother called out after her, and told her not to make too much trouble for the mechanics, especially if they where busy working on something.

Hearing that Mayu slowly turned and gave her mother a big grin, that made it obvious that she was going to bother the mechanics no matter what they where doing.

"Ok mom I promise. But knowing them they are most likely just sitting around down there drinking coffee and playing cards" the girl said, and quickly disappeared out of the door, before Murrue could say anything else to her.

Seeing her do that Murrue couldn't help but let out a big sigh, as she thought about how much trouble her daughter could get in to down in the hangar.

"That girl, what am I going to do with her!" She mumbled just loud enough for the rest of the people gather up there to hear it, which pretty much got all of them to let out a few light chuckles.

As each of them tried to imagine what Mayu would do once she reached the hangar.

But no matter what the ship's youngish crew member was going to do there down once she arrived. One thing was certain it would no doubt living things up around the ship.

But before Murrue could worry to much about Lacus stepped over next to the captain and smiled a bit at her.

"I really don't think you have to be concerned miss Murrue, we all know that Mayu can be a tiny bit crazy when she is bored. But I'm sure that Mr Murdoch and the rest of the mechanics will keep an eye on her. Even true she is properly going to do everything possible to annoy them" the pink haired girl said.

Trying not to show her amusement to the other woman.

Not that Murrue couldn't quite easily tell, how funny Lacus and everybody else up there found this whole thing.

Especially Cagalli and Dearka was really enjoying the thought of how many problems Mayu could cause down in the hangar.

The two of them had always found it very entertaining, when the youngish Ramius was out to make trouble for other people. And even true Murrue didn't quite like the idea of those two encouraging her daughter too much.

She decided that it was properly best just to ignore them.

As she once again looked back at Lacus. "It's not like I'm worried about her Lacus, but you know as well as I do that Mayu does tend to get carried away when she is out making prank" Murrue said.

Thinking back to how big a mess she had made the last time, she had decided to liven things up a bit back home. It had taken them more then a few hours to clean everything up again.

"Yeah that is pretty much the best of it. And now that I'm not a mechanic any longer I don't have to help fix up whatever she breaks down there!" Dearka said with a grin on his face.

Already looking forward to see Murdoch's reaction to whatever Mayu was planing to do. No matter what he was sure that the chief engineer was going to be quite busy. Either chasing around after Mayu, or repairing whatever the girl broke.

"This is just going to be so great!" The former Buster pilot said not doing anything to hid how much he was enjoying this.

"You do realize Dearka that if she makes to much of a mess down there. You might just be forced to help the mechanics clean everything up again!" Murrue said as she smiled a bit at the pilot that now had a somewhat unhappy look on his face, as stood there trying to figure out how many hours it would take fixing whatever the girl would most likely end up breaking down there.

That thought alone was more then enough to get him to let out a small grumbling sound, that made it clear that he was not happy with the idea about having to help out clean up after Mayu.

"Ahhh man, you just took the fun right out of it captain!" The boy said trying hard to look as displeased as possible.

Unfortunately that big cheerful smile he had on his face kinda ruined the attempted.

And if somebody asked him and he had to tell the truth, he honestly wouldn't mind helping out down there, it would certainly give him something else to do other then sit around up here rolling his thumbs, that could no doubt get boring very fast.

And perhaps once he got down there he could joining the mechanics for a little game of poker. It had been a while since he last had the opportunity to play against them.

Which certainly would be a nice change from playing against Miriallia, he might love the beautiful girl with all of his heart. But he had never liked playing poker with her, seeing as he always ended up losing.

And that was one thing that truly annoyed Dearka to his very being, seeing as he had always somewhat despised losing in games.

Something that hadn't taken long for his lovely girlfriend to find out about. So every time she beat him in some kind of game, she would always do everything possible to tease him about it.

So the idea of playing against somebody that didn't know how much it bothered him to lose was actually quite appealing. And with that in mind he hurried jumped up from his seat and began making his way towards the door.

"Now then boys and girls. If there is nothing for me to do up here, I think I'll go take a look around the hangar. I have a feeling that things it about to become very interesting down there" he said, while disappearing out of the door with everybody else up there looking after him.

And it was only when the door once more flew back shut. That Cagalli rolled her eyes a single time, and muttered something about Dearka being just as childish as Mayu.

"You are one to talk sis" Kira chuckled back.

Which made Cagalli whirl around where she immediately gave her brother a somewhat unhappy glare. "What was that Kira? What did you say?" The blond haired girl asked in a loud tone, while taking a few steps closer towards her dimwitted brother.

That by now was giving her a tiny yet innocence smile, that made it obvious for her that he really had said something.

"I didn't say anything sis, you most have imaged it" he said trying to sound as innocence as he looked.

But that didn't even fool Cagalli for a second, as she slowly turned and looked over at her sister-in-law. That was watching the two of them with a happy smile on her face.

"Your husband is an idiot Lacus" Cagalli told the other girl in a loud tone, while giving Kira yet another angry glare. Before she once more focused her attention on Lacus, that by now was making her way over to her husband.

Once there she reached out and took a hold on Kira's left arm. And without showing even the slighted hesitation she snuggled herself up towards him, happily resting her head against his shoulder, where she let out a small contented sigh.

And once she was totally comfortable there. She once more looked back at Cagalli and smiled a bit at her.

"Yeah I know he is Cagalli. But he is all mine and I love him more then anything else in this entire world" the pink haired girl said.

Still tightly holding on to Kira's arm, making sure that if he tried to go anywhere. She would be right there beside him the whole way, not that it seemed like he was going to leave anytime soon.

Hearing those words Cagalli got a far away gaze in both of her eyes, as she took a short look down at the engagement ring on her left hand. And before she could do anything to stop herself, she began playing around with the piece of jewelry.

"Believe me Lacus I know what you mean. I just wished that the person I love was here with me right now" the blond girl said, while Athrun's handsome face kept on going through her mind.

She hadn't showed it to the others all that much, but she really missed Athrun a lot these days.

He had been gone for such a long time. And she was truly begin to wonder where in the world he could be, and what he was doing.

But as she stood there with that far away look on her face dreaming about Athrun, the two Yamato's couldn't help but feel a little sorry for her. So after giving Kira a small look Lacus slowly stepped away from her husband and over to Cagalli, where she reached out and placed a hand on Cagalli's shoulder.

"I'm certain that it will only be a matter of time before you and Athrun is together again Cagalli. But knowing him he is most likely doing everything possible to help put an end to the war" the pink haired girl said.

While smiling calmly at her sister-in-law that was clearly thinking very hard about what she had just said.

And even true Lacus' words did make her feel a little better, a small part of her was still wondering why Athrun wasn't there together with the rest of them. She had no doubt that if he was here, he would certainly be able to help all of them out a lot.

"I just hope Lacus that where he is right now, that he is doing all right. It's been such a long time since I last saw him, and I just can't help but be a little worried about him. I really wish that there was a way for us to get in contact with him" Cagalli said in a far away tone, now thinking back to how he had been down on his knee and proposed to her not long ago.

That was when Kira stepped over and gave her a small hug. "I don't think you have to be worried about Athrun sis. I'm sure he is all right, and once the time is right we can try and find someway to establish contact with him, but for now we are forced to stay put until the time is right" the brown haired teen said.

Also wondering what his best friend was doing at the moment.

Hearing her brother say those words Cagalli was just about to say something back. When suddenly without any kind of warning Murdoch's face appeared up on the monitor, where he immediately let out a small unhappy growl sound.

"Captain will you please come down here, and do something about your kid! She is driving me nuts with all of her damn tricks!" The man yelled loudly, while trying hard to get a great deal of the green paint out of his normal dark blue hair.

And before Murrue or anybody else had the time to comment on that. The chief engineer turned and yelled out for somebody to stop playing around with the Skygrasper down there.

After that Murdoch once more disappeared from the screen. And it was only a few short seconds later when Cagalli let out a big laugh.

"Some times I really love that kid. She is such a good little troublemaker, kinda reminds me of myself when I was her age" the blond haired girl said, doing nothing to hush down her big outbreak of feelings.

Murrue on the other hand just let out a few light chuckles, as she stood up from her seat.

"I better hurry down there, before she actually ends up give the pure man a nervous breakdown" the brown haired woman said, while walking slowly towards the door with a small grin on her face, as she wonder a bit how in the world Mayu had succeed in colouring Murdoch's hair green.

But in the end she decided she could always ask about that once she got down there.

Seeing the woman leave, Lacus turned and looked back at her husband. "Lets hurry and go too Kira. I'm quite curious about what's going on down in the hangar!" The pink haired beauty said in a excited tone.

Just as she lashed on to his arm, and began pulling him along towards the exit of the bridge. Not giving him any kind of opportunity to tell, if he wanted to go or not.

"Hey wait up you two, I'm coming with you!" Cagalli yelled, as she hurried rushed after her two family members, out of the bridge.

And once the door flew shut after them, Andy slowly reached up and scratched his hair a bit.

"Well I guess this meeting is over. Might as well go back to my room and get a cup of coffee" he said as he too left the bridge. So now the only people back there was Dalida and Arnold that decided to run a maintenance test on all of the Archangel's systems.

Now that everybody else was gone. And things was finally calm and peaceful up there, they could both concentrate fully on their jobs.

000000

Meanwhile quite far away from the coast of Scandinavia.

Another battle ship was slowly making it's way towards Mahamul base.

They where still quite the distance from it, but that didn't really bothered the crew all that much. Most of them where using the time to repair the minor damage the ship and it's mobile suits had obtained in the last battle they had been in.

But even true the atmosphere around the Minerva was somewhat peaceful at the moment.

A loud conversation was going on down in the hangar between two of the mechanics. That was so far away in their discussion about how much Lacus Clyne and her singing style had change.

"I just can't believe that she would run around in that skimpy little outfit. I can't wait to get one of those new posters of her dressed like that!" Yolant said in a loud tone, hoping deeply that he would have the possibility to get his hands on a poster of Lacus Clyne when they reached Mahamul base.

But as the young mechanic stood there dreaming about that.

Vino suddenly said something about wanting her new CD too. Which was more then enough to snap Yolant out of his deep thoughts, and look over at his friend that was standing just beside him.

"That's a good idea Vino! I just hope that I have enough money to buy all of that stuff. I did spend a very big part of my salary back at Carpentaria" he said sounding a bit disappointed about wasting his money on pretty much nothing.

The things he had bought hadn't really been anything he truly wanted. He had just been feeling somewhat bored back there, and that meant that he had to do something like going to the base arcade. Where he had thrown about half of his hard earn money away on video games that he truth be told hadn't gotten all that far in.

And the rest of his money had been used to buy a bunch of comic books, that he had already read more then a few times.

And after that most of his salary had pretty much been gone.

Seeing how disappointed his friend was looking right now Vino reached over and gave him a hard friendly slap on his back. Getting Yolant's attention away from what he was working on and over at him.

"If you don't have the money for the CD and the poster. I don't mind borrowing you some, I got more then enough cash stash away" the youngish of the two mechanics said, with a small grin on his face.

Hearing those words Yolant couldn't help but grin too. "That's great Vino, you really are a true friend. Now I don't have to be the only one on board that doesn't get a few souvenirs with Lacus Clyne dressed like that!" He almost yelled, as he again thought about how the pink hair songster looked in her new clothes.

But before he could give it all that much thought another person cut in to their conversation.

"I'm sorry to interrupted gentleman. But I would like Saviour's maintenance log if you are not to busy!" Athrun said in a friendly tone, while smiling a bit at the shocked reaction he got out of both of them.

And it only took a few seconds before Vino gave him what he was asking for, still acting a bit like he didn't know what to do with himself at the moment.

Athrun on the other hand was far to busy looking the data over to notice how nervous he was making the two mechanics.

He just continued standing there for a few seconds studying the log. But finally after what felt like an eternity for Vino and Yolant, the gundam piloted took a glance up at his mobile suit.

Before he again turned his attention back towards them.

"Everything seems fine so carry on gentleman!" Athrun said in a calm tone, before he slowly turned and walked of with the two of them looking after him.

And once both mechanics was sure that he was out of sight, they each let out a big relieved sigh, while Vino slowly reached up and wiped a few drops of sweat away from his forehead.

After doing that he turned both of his eyes over towards his friend. "Man, I was certain that he was going to be angry at us, he is after all engaged to Lacus Clyne"

Vino said, while doing his best to make sure that the Saviour pilot wasn't around to hear what he and Yolant was saying to each other.

And once he was completely sure that Athrun wasn't nearby he again looked over at his fellow mechanic that was just standing there with a somewhat thoughtful look on his face.

But before Vino could ask what his friend was thinking about.

Yolant shook his head a few times, clearly trying to get his mind back on the conversation he was engaged in right now.

"Yeah he is a pretty lucky guy. But you know that now that we are over here, it wouldn't be all that hard pulling a few cables out of the Saviour" the boy said with a slightly wicked smirk on his face.

That made it somewhat unclear if he was serious or not.

But before Vino could come up with something to say back, another voice suddenly called out to them.

"You two do realize that I'm still down here. And that I can hear everything you are talking about!" Athrun said in a slightly humorist tone. That would be somewhat hard to recognize unless you where one of those people that knew him very well.

Unfortunately neither of the two mechanics realized that he was just messing with them. So they hurried turned around and looked back at him, both of them yelling loudly that they where sorry.

But Athrun just looked at them for a second or two. Before he gave each of them a somewhat disapproval look, then turned away from them and once more walked off, doing nothing to hide that big grin he had on his face at the moment.

It actually was quite fun rattling around with other people like this.

And it was at times like these, that he truly did understand why people like Andrew Waltfeld and a few others liked doing it so much, there was however a few crew members down there that realized that Athrun had just been joking around with the two mechanics.

And even true she hadn't heard the whole thing, Lunamaria couldn't help but grin a bit at what she had heard.

It really had been amusing seeing both Vino and Yolant that nervous and afraid of an earful. If Athrun continued doing stuff like that Luna was certain that it wouldn't take long before even Shinn would warmed a bit up to him and began following his orders.

But as she turned and took a short glance back at Shinn. She saw him standing there watching Athrun with a slightly thoughtful expression on his face, that however didn't stay there for long.

Once Shinn noticed that the red hair girl was staring at him. He let out an unhappy huff sound, before he hurried turned his attention back towards whatever he had been doing before Athrun had enter the hangar.

Seeing the stubborn gundam piloted do that. Luna couldn't help but let out a small sigh as she rolled her eyes a single time.

Athrun might be somewhat funny from time to time. But it would with no doubt still take many hours before Shinn would have gained enough respect for Athrun to actually take orders from him.

So after watching Shinn work for about a small minute, Luna decided that she was much more curious about finding out what her crush was doing at the moment.

And after looking around a bit she found him standing over by Nicol talking with him about something she couldn't hear.

But before she could even consider going over to them. One of the mechanics working on her ZAKU suddenly called out to her and asked her a very important question, she knew that it was best to answer right away.

So after taking one last glance over at Athrun and Nicol. She let out a small sigh, while quickly making her way over to her mobile suit, deeply hoping that this would not take too long.

But much to her small disappointment.

The mechanics that was fixing up her red mobile suit had more then one thing, they needed her help with. So it did not take her long to realize that there was just no way she could figure out what the two former members of the Le Creuset team was talking about.

But perhaps when they where all done working, she could ask the two of them to have lunch with her.

That thought alone did make her work a bit faster, she seriously didn't want to stay down here any longer then necessary.

000000

At the same time over by the only GOUF in the hangar.

Nicol was looking at his friend with a puzzled expression on his face.

"I really don't get why you don't just tell them that you and miss Lacus are no longer engaged. You do realize that miss Cagalli would most likely ring your neck if she knew that you where not denying such a thing. And just try and think about how Kira would react, he is after all married to miss Lacus" the pilot of the yellow mobile suit said.

While thinking back to, how happy the married couple always was when they where together.

Hearing his friend say that Athrun blinked a few times in disbelief.

He had been sure that if there was anybody on board the Minerva, that could figure out that the Lacus working for the Chairman was a fake one. It would have been Nicol of all people.

But apparently his green haired friend still hadn't realized what was really going on.

And that the real Lacus was with Kira on board the Archangel.

But before Athrun could even consider telling his friend the truth. The alarm suddenly began ringing all over the ship.

And all of them could now hear Meyrin's voice telling them that Athrun, Shinn and Rey should board their machines immediately.

"What the heck is happening now! I thought we where on our way to a Zaft base, so why are we being send in to combat NOW?" Luna asked in a loud tone.

That could be heard all over the hangar, while she turned and took a look up at her one armed ZAKU. Feeling a bit annoyed that she would have to stay back there while everybody else was out fighting.

There was however another person down there that had the same problem as the girl.

It just wasn't possible for Nicol to go out there with all the damage his GOUF had taken in the last battle, so the only thing he could do now was smile a bit at Athrun and wish him good luck.

"Thank you Nicol, I'll see you once we get back!" The blue haired teen said loudly over the alarm that could still be heard all over the ship.

After that he turned around and ran off towards the piloted ready room, to retrieve his space suit. But even as he was running down the ships halls he couldn't stop himself from trying to figure out what was going on.

And he wasn't the only one who was giving this some serious thought.

Both Shinn and Rey who was running not far ahead of him, each of them where discoursing loudly what in the world that was happening now. They did however not get long to do that, before they arrived at the ready room.

Once in there they didn't waste any time in getting in to their space suits.

After doing that, they once more began making their way back down to the hangar.

To be continued.


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20

It hadn't been long since Athrun had gotten in to the Saviour, where he heard Meyrin telling him and the other pilots, that the Zaft base they where approaching was under attack by a minor Earth Forces fleet.

"Damn it! Those Earth Forces bastards are everywhere these days! They are almost like a bunch of cockroach. Now lets hurry up and get out there, so I can step them flat like last time!"

Shinn yelled out over from the Core Splendor. Completely determined to once more show the Earth Forces who the hell they where messing with.

Which meant that there was a large part of him that was seriously hoping that the three stolen gundams was out there. That way he would be able to pay them back for destroying the Nyiragongo.

But when Meyrin began explaining to them, what they where up against. He couldn't help but feel a little disappointed when she didn't even mention one of the stolen gundams.

But once Meyrin told them that there was three mobile armors of the same kind, as the one they had fought just outside of Orb.

The disappointment quickly disappeared again.

And now he sat there with a deep thoughtful expression on his face. One of those annoying things had been hard enough to beat. But three of them where a bit much, he need to make completely sure that he had the right kind of equipment on the Impulse to fight those damn mobile armors.

He was actually so far away in trying to figure out what to do once he got out there.

That he didn't hear what else Meyrin was saying.

And it was only when Athrun began talking in a loud tone. That he snapped back out of his deep thoughts, about how it would be most easy for him, to beat the crap out of those three machines as quickly as possible.

"Now then you two, once we get out there, I would like for you to stay back here Rey and defend the Minerva, while Shinn and I go help the base take out those mobile armors" the blue hair boy order.

Just as the Saviour was dropped loudly down on the catapult, making it clear for everybody down there that the red gundam was ready to head out, and join the quite violent party outside.

Still not all that keen on the idea of taking orders from the newcomer, it took a few seconds before Shinn finally decided to give Athrun a reply.

"Ok I understand. By the way Athrun if you are going to fight against those mobile armors try an avoid attacking them from the front. They are quite dangerous from that approach" Shinn said, while thinking back to his previous encounter with one of those freakish looking Earth Forces machines.

Hearing the Impulse pilot giving him advise like that. Athrun felt a small smile ran over his lips. It was somewhat nice to know that Shinn was at least willing to try and work together with him in this battle.

"I see, thank you for the advise Shinn. Now lets get to it before they can make an even bigger mess out there!" The blue haired teen said. Just as the Saviour left the Minerva's hangar, followed shortly be the Core Splendor and the equipment need to create a full combat ready mobile suit.

And it only took a few minutes then the Impulse was fully assembled and equipped with the Force Silhouette.

Seeing that the other boy was ready to fight Athrun took a quick look around on the battlefield, until he again turned his attention over on the mobile suit flying beside him.

"Lets take out the mobile armor farthest to the left Shinn. That one seems to be working pretty much on it's own, so it should be a somewhat easy target to take out, with nothing around to back it up. And once we get rid of that one, we can concentrate fully on the two others" Athrun explained, while at the same time using the two plasma cannons to destroy a couple of Windams that got in their way.

Using a few seconds to think over Athrun's plan of attack.

Shinn decided that he should at the very least try and do some of the things the other teen said. He seriously didn't feel like getting in to another argument with Athrun or Nicol.

Perhaps by following a few of Athrun's orders he could figure out if the other pilot truly deserved the deep respected the rest of the crew seemed to be giving him.

And with that in mind, he took a small glance over at the red gundam next to him. "You just lead the way Athrun, I'll be right behind you!" He said in a slightly angry tone, as he reach up and pulled out the beam saber.

Then hurried evade under a few beams which a lonely Windam was firing at him, but before the idiot had the time to aim properly.

Shinn slammed the saber straight through the chest area of the white mobile suit, making it blow up almost directly in front of him.

And once he was certain that there was nothing else around that was asking for a good beating. He hurried took off after the Saviour that by now was busy playing around with two other Windams.

But once he was done taking care of them, they once more took off towards the green mobile armor, that was floating around not all that far ahead of them.

They did however not even get the opportunity to get off even one attack. Before the damn thing fired a big round of beams straight at them, forcing both of them to get out of the way in a hurry.

"Try and distract it Shinn, while I attack it from behind!" Athrun order loudly, while transforming the Saviour over in to it's mobile armor mode, where he immediately took aim and fired of the two plasma cannons at the even bigger mobile armor.

That of course used it's beam shield to defend itself, only to low it a half second later now trying to grab a hold on the red gundam with one of it's claws.

Seeing them do that Athrun hurried manoeuvred the Saviour up over the somewhat nasty looking weapon. And before it had the opportunity to try and catch him one more time.

Shinn came charging in with full speed shooting of both the beam rifle and the machine guns at the mobile armor. Forcing it to once more rely on the beam shield to prevent itself from taking any damage from the attack.

"Damn this thing is just as irritating as the last one!" Shinn yelled out in a angry tone.

Just as he quickly evade in between the next rain of beams the mobile armor fired at him. While at the same time using the shield to make sure that the Impulse would not take any damage from this.

But even true Shinn was quite good at avoiding getting hit by the mobile armor's attacks, he quickly realized that if he had to do this for long it would only be a matter of time before one of the many beams would hit him.

"Damn it all! Where the hell is that stupid bastard? I thought he said, he was going to attack it from behind, so what the heck is he doing?" The boy asked, doing nothing at all to control his anger, this was really starting to annoy him greatly.

Here he was fighting for his life, and the imbecile that was supposed to help him was of doing something else instead.

He did however not get the opportunity to voice anymore of his anger, when he noticed a minor explosion, not all that far away from him.

And once he looked in that direction he saw the Saviour gundam blasting it's way through a squadron of about four Windams. After that the red mobile suit flew with full speed towards the giant armor.

"I'm sorry about that Shinn, those guys showed up from out of nowhere!" Athrun yelled.

Just as he got the Saviour over in to mobile suit mode where he immediately throw the shield away and pulled out both beam sabers.

And before Shinn had the time to figure out what he was planing now. He dropped directly down towards the mobile armor, where he hurried slammed both weapons in to the back of the damn thing.

Seeing him do that Shinn got the beam saber out again and charge straight towards the Earth Forces machine, determined to help the other pilot take it out before it could do any more damage to the base below them.

And with their combined strength, it did not take long before the armor was so badly messed up that it couldn't be used any more in this battle.

Happy to have gotten rid of that threat, both pilots turned and took a look back at the Minerva. Just as the grey space ship fired of the Tannhauser at the second one of the armors.

But thanks to it's positron reflector shield it didn't really take any damage.

And once the enormous red beam disappeared again, the mobile armor once more continued on it's way towards the Minerva, with a few DINNs doing everything to stop it.

But the few Windams providing escort for the damn thing, had no trouble at all getting rid of the purple Zaft mobile suits.

And once the last of them where gone, it truly did seemed like the armor was free to do whatever it wanted.

"We have to take out that thing before it gets to the Minerva, Shinn!" Athrun shouted, while taking a glance over at the last of the mobile armors that was having fun with a small squadron of GOUFs, that was doing a pretty good job keeping the Earth Forces war machine occupied.

And after watching them fight for a second or two Athrun transformed the Saviour in to mobile armor and took off after the Impulse that was flying not that far ahead of him.

Once in ranger of the second mobile armor the two teens immediately began firing of their beam rifles at the monstrosity. Unfortunately they didn't have much luck in damaging the stupid thing.

"Damn, I'm begin to understand why you despise these things so much Shinn!" Athrun said, as he hurried evade up over a rain of beams from the enemy machine.

"Yeah tell me about it, and the morons inside this thing, is actually much better pilots, then the last bunch we fought!" Shinn yelled out.

Not doing a thing to hide just how much he truly hated these new Earth Forces machines.

They where just so damn annoying, and they where seriously starting to get on his nerves. Yet as he was thinking about how much he truly hated these things he once more saw that strange seed in his head.

Which instantly made him reach up and pull out both beam sabers.

Not really knowing what the pilot of the Impulse was going to do, Athrun hurried fired both plasma cannons at the green war machine, destroying the claw that was trying to get a hold on the other gundam.

But thanks to Athrun's quick thinking it did not take long, before Shinn slammed both weapons straight through the hard green metal the mobile armor had been made off.

But even true that did do some serious damage to the machine, it was still not nearly enough to destroy it completely.

"Shinn hurry up and get away from that thing, before it can get a hold on you!" Athrun order in a loud tone, as he used the beam rifle to fire a few shots down at the mobile armor, making sure to cover the other piloted while he was retreating back to a safe distance.

And once Athrun was sure that Shinn was safely away from the enemy machine. He hurried got the Saviour over in to it's mobile armor mode.

While Shinn yelled out for Meyrin to launch the Sword Silhouette. And it wasn't much later before the two Zaft soldiers was once more busy disassembling the Earth Forces mobile armor one part after another.

000000

Meanwhile back on the Minerva.

Both Nicol and Lunamaria was in the pilot ready room watching the battle that was still going on outside of the ship.

And even true they did not show it much. Both of them where really relieved that Shinn and Athrun was out there to keep the enormous mobile armor away from the ship, there was just no telling how much damage they would take if something like that got a hold on them.

But what was actually surprising the two of them a bit, was how well the two gundam pilots was working together in kicking the crap out of the green mobile armor.

And finally after just standing there for a bit Luna turned and looked over at the boy next to her.

"Are you sure that's it's really Shinn that's inside the Impulse? It's kinda hard to believe that he is willingly taking orders from Athrun without being forced!" She said.

As she saw the Impulse evade another heavy attack from the Earth Forces war machine, while at the same time grabbing a hold on one of the beam boomerangs, which he instantly throw of towards the armor, destroying yet another one of the claws on the damn thing.

And just before the mobile armor had the time to get over that attack. Athrun fired of the two plasma cannons in to the back of the machine, knocking it completely of it's course.

"I'm not really that surprise Lunamaria, Shinn might be very stubborn from time to time. But he does have his own kind of honour, and after what Athrun and I said to him yesterday. He might just think that this is the best way for him to regain it" Nicol said, as they saw both gundams once more charge full speed towards the mobile armor, both of them with their close range weapons out and ready to strike.

Thinking a few seconds about everything her friend had just said.

Luna again turned her eyes over at Nicol, that was watching the screen with a slightly thoughtful look on his face. "So Nicol, do you think they can continue working together like this in the future?" The red haired girl asked.

She seriously hoped that this wasn't just a one time thing, she truly did like the idea of all of them fighting beside each other against whatever opponent they ran in to.

If they did something like that, she was certain that there was nothing out there they couldn't handle.

But the response Nicol gave her did disappoint her a bit.

"That's kinda hard to say Luna. But now that Shinn have gotten a taste of what he and Athrun can do, when they join forces, it might be possible that Shinn will finally accept Athrun as the one in charge" the green haired teenager said, still sounding very thoughtful about the whole thing.

It was kinda hard to guess if this entire affair, was what they all needed to be a real team.

Thinking those words over for a brief moment. Lunamaria finally let out a small sigh, as she watched the mobile armor, Athrun and Shinn was going up against blow up, not that far away from the Minerva.

"You really are a bit of a spoilsport Nicol. But I guess you are right, we just have to wait and see if this team work will continue in the next battle we get in to" the red haired girl said.

Now watching as the Earth Forces fleet out there began slowly retreating away from the area, still with a few Zaft mobile suits showing them the hard way out.

Apparently now that Athrun and Shinn had destroyed two of the mobile armors, and the small squadron of GOUFs had somehow taken out the third one.

The Earth Forces had obviously lost their will to continue with the fighting. And it did not take long before the minor fleet of ships could only be seen as a few small dots in the horizon.

Seeing that the battle was over, Nicol turned and looked over at the girl next to him, where he gave her a small smile.

"I really don't know if this team work between them is a one time occasion. But no matter what they certainly did a good job out there, so why don't the two of us go down to the hangar and congratulate them?" He asked in his usual kind tone, while giving her a small bow and offering his arm to her in a gentleman kind fashion.

Seeing Nicol do that.

Luna just couldn't help but let out a light giggle, as she reached out and took a hold on his arm, letting her green haired friend lead her over to the elevator, that would take them back down to the hangar.

000000

At the same time outside Rey was watching, as the Saviour and the Impulse was making their way back to the ship.

The two pilots might have done an incredible job in taking out two of those mobile armors. But a part of him was still not entirely certain if it truly was a good thing that Shinn was able to work so well together with Athrun.

Rey just couldn't help but feel a great deal of distrust towards the pilot of the Saviour. It really wasn't a big secret that Athrun's best friend was Kira Yamato.

But perhaps if Shinn and the others was able to build a close friendship with Athrun.

They might someday have the opportunity to get the blue haired teenager, to tell them some of Kira's more critical weakness'. That way it surely would be, that much easier to remove him from this world.

And just the thought alone was more then enough to make a slightly wicked smile ran over his lips,

Just as he turned the Phantom around and began making his way back towards the Minerva's already open hangar. Still thinking of ways he and Gil could somehow exploited the friendship that was slowly building up between Athrun, and the other crew members.

But as Rey sat there trying to come up with the best ways to kill the Ultimate Coordinator. He suddenly noticed an orange GOUF following to two gundams in to the Minerva's hangar.

Wondering a second or two what that was about. The blond haired teenager decided to put his strategy making on hold, and follow the other mass-produced mobile suit in to the grey space ship.

To try and figure out what in the world the pilot of the orange mobile suit was up to, and once he got inside the ship he saw the GOUF walk over beside Lunamaria's ZAKU where it immediately began powering down.

Seeing that, Rey took a quick look around to try and find a space for his mobile suit, now that the newcomer had taken his space beside Lunamaria's machine.

Not that he cared all that much about where his ZAKU was standing. Just as long as it was ready for combat whenever he had a need for it.

So after standing there for a bit he moved the ZAKU over beside the Impulse, as far as he remember nobody was using that space, so his mobile suit might as well use it now that his normal space was occupied.

And without wasting any more time, he immediately began powering down the white ZAKU, which did not take all that much time.

And once all of that was over and done with, he hurried opened the cockpit and got down to the ground, where it didn't take long for him to notice that he wasn't the only one that was a bit curious about the orange GOUF.

The others was talking loudly about the mobile suit, and why it had made the decision to land here instead of some place back at the base.

They did however not get long to discourse it, before the cockpit of the GOUF flew open and the pilot of the mobile suit slowly lowed himself to the floor, where he immediately took a quick look around before he reached up and pulled of his helmet.

After that he gave all of them a brief salute, before he began talking in a loud tone that could pretty much be heard all over the hangar.

"YO everybody, it's nice to meet you ALL!" The orange hair pilot said. Making it sound like he already was very good friends with pretty much everybody on board the Minerva. Even true there was actually only one individual in the entire hangar that knew who he was.

And that person was already making his way over to the weird GOUF pilot, where he gave him a small salute back.

"It's good to see you again Heine, but what exactly are you doing all the way out here?" Athrun asked in a somewhat curious tone, while taking a short glance up at the orange GOUF, wondering slightly just how good a pilot Heine really was.

He had taken notice of the strange colour mobile suit while he and Shinn was fighting against the two Zamza-Zah or what their name was. But truth be told, he hadn't really seen much of what the GOUF pilot could do, and he was quite frankly a little curious about it.

Heine was after all a member of FAITH too, and that could only mean that he had to be quite skilled in using that thing.

And with that in mind he again turned his attention, back towards Heine that was obviously just waiting for him to get back out of his deep thoughts. And once he did that, Heine immediately began talking in the same loud tone as before.

"Well I was order by the Chairman to function as an escort for you guys when you leave this place!" The man explained, while taking a curious look around at all the mobile suits gather down there.

And once his eyes land on the Impulse gundam he immediately stepped away from Athrun and made his way over to the gundam. Which he slowly looked over with a somewhat thoughtful expression on his face.

He did however not get much time to really study the mobile suit, before a loud voice suddenly interrupted his thoughts.

"Do you have something, you want to say about my mobile suit!" Shinn asked, as he rush full speed over to the stranger, that was just standing there looking at the Impulse, like he wanted to take it out for a small spin around the base.

And that was not a thought he liked very much.

So he was more then ready to tell this guy to stay away from his mobile suit.

But much to his small surprise the man just turned and looked at him for a few brief seconds. Before he smiled a bit at him and once more turned his attention back towards the Impulse.

"Nop not really, I have just been hearing a lot of things about the Impulse, so I was a bit curious about what all the fuss was about. But it really is quite an impressive mobile suit. So other then the Sword it also have something name Force and Blast right?" He asked, while once more letting his eyes ran over the mobile suit in front of him.

Hearing the orange haired fellow ask him that.

Shinn blinked a few times, he just couldn't help but be a bit amazed over how much knowledge this weird guy had about the Impulse. So it took him a few seconds to come up with some kind of response to his question.

"Yep that's right the Force Silhouette is made for aerial combat, while the Blast is made more for heavy assault combat!" Shinn explained in a tone that made it clear for everybody there, that he really was proud that he had been selected as the pilot to the Impulse.

And just hearing the boy talking so proudly about his mobile suit, made the smile on Heine's lips grew slightly in size.

As he once more turned his eyes over towards Shinn.

"Hmmm that certainly does sound very interesting. I can see how so many different modes can be very useful. When you are out there fighting around, and something unexpected shows up" Heine said, thinking back to how the last battle had started.

At first the Earth Forces had only been attacking with Windams and a few other mobile suits, that hadn't really given them much of a challenge.

But when those three mobile armors had enter the battle, things had gone from good to very bad in just a couple of minutes.

And it actually had seemed a bit like, those mobile armors was going to wipe pretty much all of them out. Until the Minerva and the two gundams had appeared from out of nowhere, as a nice little party of well needed reinforcements.

And just thinking about how easily the Saviour and the Impulse had defeat two of those mobile armors.

Had definitely without a doubt been a very impressive sight, seeing those two mobile suits in action.

So still with those thoughts going through his head, he gave the Impulse pilot a small grin as he once more began talking in the same friendly tone as before.

"I would actually like to talk a bit more with you about the Impulse. But I think it would properly be best that I head for the bridge, and tell the captain why exactly I'm here. But maybe we can talk about it some other time" he said, stretching both of his arms up over his head, while forcing back a yawn.

Be might not show it all that much, but it had been quite a hard day, and he could truthfully use a few hours of rest.

"So who of you guys wants to be a nice fellows, and show me the way to the bridge?" He asked, now with a more goofy smile on his face.

That made it clear for everybody gather down there, that he wasn't going to force anybody to take him to the bridge. But it only took a few short seconds before Shinn volunteered to help Heine find his way up to the bridge.

"Thank you pal, now onward to our destination!" Heine said in a loud tone, that made more then a few crew members laugh softly, as they watched the weird newcomer follow Shinn out of the hangar.

Which meant that it did not take long before more then a few of them where talking about the strange pilot.

"I don't know about you two. But I think I'm going to like having him on board. He was hilarious" Lunamaria said, while smiling brightly at Athrun and Nicol that was standing in front of her.

Both of them obviously having just as much fun as she was.

Which really made her hope, that the orange hair guy was going to be a permanent adhesion to the Minerva's crew.

"Yeah he was a really funny person, by the way Athrun where did you know him from?" Nicol asked in a curious tone, while taking a small glance over at the orange GOUF.

For some reason he couldn't help but think it was a bit odd having another one of those mobile suits on board. Up until now his GOUF had been the only one station on the Minerva.

Yet having another one with them along for the ride, would most definitely be a great help in the future.

He did however not get long to ponder over that before Athrun cut of his thoughts.

"He was my bodyguard up at the Plants when I was out visiting my mother's and everybody else's graves, Nicol" Athrun said in a slightly far away tone, as he stood there a few seconds thinking about all of those old friends that was buried back up at the Plants.

But after a speculating over that for a moment or two he slowly shook those thoughts away.

He seriously did not feel like thinking about something that depressing right now. And one look over at Nicol made it obvious that he was also thinking about their old friends, which meant that there was a high possibility that it wouldn't take long before Mayura would appear in Nicol's mind.

Which always made it seem very much like the green haired pilot was just about to be crushed under a huge weight of sadness.

And determined not to have his friend get all depressed, Athrun hurried stepped over and placed his hand on Nicol's shoulder.

"Why don't the three of us go down and get something to eat. I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm actually quite hungry over here!" Athrun said loudly, hoping deeply that the red haired Astray pilot hadn't already enter Nicol's mind.

He knew how much time it would take before his green hair friend would stop thinking about her. Not that Athrun didn't understand why, he would most likely feel exactly the same way if it had been Cagalli that had been killed back then.

But much to his small relief Nicol slowly lifted his head and looked over at him, where he immediately smiled a bit at him.

"That's a great idea Athrun, lets hurry up and go" Nicol said in a slightly far away voice. Just as the three friends began slowly making their way over towards the exit of the hangar.

Lunamaria wondering a bit why the two former members of the Le Creuset team was so depressed right now.

But it after thinking a bit about what they had said to each other. She realized it was most likely because they where thinking about all of those comrades they had lost two year ago in the last war.

So after taking a few small looks between them. She decided not to say anything about it, she certainly didn't want to make her two friends even more depressed.

And it only took them a couple of minutes to get to the mess hall.

Where they saw Meyrin sitting all by herself on one of the couches located at the very end of the room. Reading quietly in some colourful looking magazine, and after looking at her for a small second.

Lunamaria hurried made her way over to her where she immediately took a close look at whatever her sister was reading. Which was more then enough to make her sigh loudly.

"Why are you still reading junk like that Meyrin. You know that not even half of those things in there is true!" The older red haired girl said, in a somewhat tired tone.

Before she quickly reached out and scratched the thick magazine out of her sister hands. Curious to see what kind of mindless gossip she was reading about now.

"Ahh come on Meyrin! You do realize that there is no way that can be true. If there really was some kind of alien specie watching the Plants, I'm almost certain we would have discovered them a long time ago, unless they are using Mirage Colloid" Lunamaria said.

Still having a bit of a tough time believing that her sister could read something as brain dead as this trash.

She did however not get long to ponder over that before her sister interrupted her slightly grumpy thoughts. "Well excuse me very much for reading that stuff! But you should know already Luna, that I don't really believe anything that is written in those magazine!" Meyrin said, smiling slightly about what she had been reading before Luna took the magazine away from her.

But it did not take long before she once more continued talking. "The reason why I keep reading something as ridiculous as this, is simply because I find it hilarious to read whatever the authors have made up, in every new issue of the magazine so why can't you just mind your own business Luna! It's not like I'm complaining about your stupid romance novels!" The girl said, giving her sister a small unhappy glare.

Just as she reached out and scratched the colourful magazine back. This time making sure that it was well hidden behind her back.

But much to her small surprise, Lunamaria didn't even try and get the magazine away from her. She just stood there looking at her with a slightly offend expression on her face.

"What the heck is the matter with my romance novels, that's something every normal girl should read Meyrin!" The ZAKU pilot said back, with a light glimmer in her eyes that made it clear for Meyrin that her sister was more then ready to get in to a long discussion about their choices in reading material.

And it only took a brief moment or two, then both girls was far away in their small argument about what was fun to read and what was not.

So while the pairs of Hawke sisters continued arguing back and forth like that. They did not pay any attention to the two boys that was watching them.

"Nicol are they always like this?" Athrun asked in a quiet tone.

While he stood there looking between the two red haired girls, as they kept on yelling at each other. Like this was going to be the very last day they would ever have the opportunity to do that.

And one thing that actually amaze Athrun a bit about this whole thing, was how incredible loud, the two girls could be.

Hearing Athrun's question. Nicol took a brief glance away from the two arguing siblings, and over at his friend, where he gave him a small smile.

"Hmm it not like they argue all that much. But from time to time they somehow end up in a discussion about some pretty strange things, not that I think we have to worry about them. This is just one of their abnormal ways, to show that they truly do care a lot about each other" the green hair boy explained, while thinking hard about how many times he had seen the two sisters act like this in the past.

But after a while he decided not to think to much about it, as he again turned his attention back towards the two debating Hawke girls.

Yet before he could even try and understand what they where saying now. Athrun quiet voice interrupted his thoughts.

"I see! So what you are saying Nicol is that it's best just to let them handle this on their own right?" The blue haired teen asked, a bit nervous that the two girls would take the argument even further.

He seriously didn't wanted two of the ships more important crew members hurt, simply because they disliked whatever the other one preferred to read in.

But according to Nicol this was pretty much a normal occasion on the Minerva. And after watching the two of them a bit longer.

Athrun realized that this kinda reminded him of the way Cagalli would always argue with other people when they called her something, else other then her name. Especially command La Flaga had been one of those people that could really get her blood boiling.

And even true his fiancée had mention more then a few times, that she kinda disliked the second pilot of the Strike. Athrun knew that she missed the blond man just as much as Kira and Lacus did.

He truly had been like a big brother to all of them, and it wasn't a big secret, that Cagalli had somewhat enjoyed most of those small arguments, she and La Flaga use to have.

And the way Lunamaria and Meyrin kept on yelling at each other, was almost the same thing.

So after standing there looking at them a for a few minutes. The blue haired teenager slowly shook his head, as he turned away from them, and walked over to get one of the trays of food the chef had just placed on the counter.

And it wasn't long after that, before both Athrun and Nicol was sitting calmly at one of the tables in there.

Each of them doing there best to ignore the two still arguing girls. That just couldn't come to an agreement on who of them where reading the most intelligent thing.

But while they continued calm and rational little discussion. Another crew member enter the mess hall, where he almost immediately looked over at the two extremely loud Hawke sisters, that clear wasn't going stop their discussion anytime soon.

"Will the two of you immediately stop with your yelling! That's certainly not the way professional and well mannered soldiers such as yourself should act, the two of you should both be very ashamed of yourself!" Arthur yelled loudly.

Hoping that this was enough to put an end to their bickering. They did however continued a few seconds longer until they each realized that he was there.

And once the deputy captain knew that he had their attention, he gave them both a disappointed look.

"Just how many times do I have to tell you two girls, that if you absolutely have to argue like that, then you should do it in your room, please don't let it happen again" the man said. Already knowing that this was not going to be the last time he stopped the two girls from yelling at each other.

He had already done that more then a few times since they joined the Minerva's crew.

He had actually tried talking with the captain about it at one point in time. But she had just laugh a bit and told him that it was completely normal for siblings to fight with each other.

And that he shouldn't blame them for letting out a little steam from time to time. It was better that they had a small debate about nothing then one of them getting hurt in battle, because they where stressed out from working to hard.

So even true he didn't think it was all that professional having them argue like this.

He certainly did not want any of the girls to get hurt. So he could somewhat accept that they had a small fight at times. Just not too often, that would no doubt show the other crew members a very bad example about how, one where suppose to behave on a warship.

And once he was certain that the two girls was done, he slowly turned around and left the mess hall as hastily as he had appeared.

Making sure that the second in command was really gone the two girls took a small glance over at each other. Before they walked over and sat down at the exact same table where Athrun and Nicol was slowly eating their lunch.

"Why does that man always shows up whenever I'm about to win our arguments?" Meyrin asked in a soft yet wondering tone, while still holding the magazine that had started the whole thing in a tight grip. She certainly didn't want to lose her colourful gossip material, because her attention was elsewhere.

But if she had bother taking a look over at her older sister, she would have realized that stealing her magazine was the farthest thing on Luna's mind at the moment.

Right now she was far more busy glaring at her for the last comment about winning the argument.

"That's not true Meyrin and you know it. If the second in command hadn't showed up you wouldn't still have that stupid magazine!" Lunamaria said back in a slightly displeased tone.

That made it completely clear for both Meyrin and the two boys, that she was more then ready to started another argument if she had to. But before Meyrin could get out a reply to what her sister had just said.

Nicol made the decision that they had fought more then enough today. So before any of the girls could say anything else he interrupt them.

"The two of you do realize that if you start yelling again there is a very big chance that the deputy commander will come back here. So don't you think you should give it a rest for now?" The green haired boy asked in a somewhat hard yet kind tone.

Hoping deeply that he could eat the rest of his lunch without the two sisters acting as background entertainment.

It did however not take long before he realized that it was a mistake on his part to get involved in this. Seeing as now both of the red haired girls was giving him a look that could most likely kill him.

"There was nobody that asked for you opinion in this Nicol. Meyrin and I can have a small discussion everytime we want!" Lunamaria said. Not doing a thing to hide that now she wasn't angry at her younger sister anymore.

Now it was her fellow mobile suit pilot who had that small honour.

So after glaring at him a bit longer, the angry girl slowly stood up without saying another word, then she turned and made her way over to get some of the food that was standing over on the counter. For some reason she always got a hungry whenever she had an argument with somebody, and this time was no different.

So once she had the food she wanted.

It did not take long before she was making her way back to the table, making sure to glare at Nicol the entire time.

And once she sat down again it was Meyrin's turn to leave the table, while Lunamaria made sure that the pilot of the yellow GOUF, knew that none of them where to happy with him right now.

And when youngish of the two sister got back there, each of the girls did their best to glare at Nicol every single time they took a bite of their food.

But no matter how angry they where at him, Nicol had a somewhat difficult time not showing his amusement to the girl.

He knew that if he did something like that. They would no doubt get even more mad at him.

So for now it was best to just keep on eating, and not give the girls any kind of attention. But even as he was doing that Athrun slowly leaned over and whispered a few words to him.

"I don't know if it's just me Nicol, but perhaps it would have been best for you not to get involved in their argument" the blue haired teenager said, while taking a brief glance over at the two angry sisters. That still looked like they where just about ready to start throwing their lunch after Nicol.

It did however not take long before it became somewhat clear for Athrun. That they where not going to do anything else other then sit there looking at him, and when Nicol leand over to say something back, he wasn't too concerned about being covered up with food.

"You don't have to worry Athrun, I'm sure after an hour or two they will forgive me!" The green haired boy said, while at the sametime smiling gently at the Hawke sisters, who not surprisingly looked even more unhappy then before.

And not even a second later the two girl made certain that everybody gather down there. Knew their opinion about Nicol's little comment about them forgiving him that quickly.

"There is no way we will ever forgive you that fast, that's something you can be completely sure of Nicol. You need to work hard if you ever hope to be friends with us again!" The two redheads yelled loudly, at exactly the same time.

Just before they both stood up from the table, and stormed full speed out of the mess hall without saying anything else.

And once they where both out of sight Nicol couldn't stop himself from letting out a few light chuckles. "Those two will never change" he said, while taking another bite of his food chewing it slowly a few times before he swallowed it. After that he reached out for his glass and took a small mouthful of the nice cold water that was inside it.

But as he was doing that he didn't noticed that Athrun was watching him. "Are you sure that it was a good idea for you to get both of them mad at you. I don't know all that much about Meyrin. But Lunamaria does seems to have quite the temper. I'm not entirely certain that I believe they will forgive you that fast" the Saviour pilot said, as he played a bit with his food, before taking another bite of it.

Hearing his friend say that Nicol smile a bit. "It's all right Athrun. Normally when they are angry it takes a couple of hours for them to came down, and once they do they usually forgets whatever made them angry in the first place" he explained, while his thoughts wandered back to some of the times where the girls had been even more angry then they had now.

Especially Shinn had an ability to really get under the two Hawke sisters skin.

But no matter how mad he got them, they would always forgive him in the end. And Nicol was certain that it would only be a matter of time, then he would be just as good friends with them as he always was.

Yet even true Nicol did sound quite convincing right now.

Athrun still wasn't entirely sure, that he believed that the girls would be back to their usual good mood, in such a short time.

But for now the only thing he could do was wait and see if Nicol was right.

And with that in mind he once more continued eating his lunch. But after a few minutes of deep silence, Nicol began talking again this time asking about how his and Cagalli's relationship was going.

And after thinking about it for a small moment. Athrun began telling his friend about how he had propose to Cagalli just before he left for the Plants.

"That's truly great news Athrun. I hope that the two of you will be very happy together!" Nicol said in a loud tone. While thinking back to how frequently, Cagalli and Athrun had show affection for each other two years ago, the two of them really was a nice couple.

Which was something that made Nicol wonder a bit, if he could ever find somebody he truly wanted to spend the rest of his life with.

But before he could think all that much about it. His friend suddenly brought his wandering thoughts to a hold.

"By the way Nicol, now that we are talking about it. Have you heard anything new about the Archangel?" Athrun asked once more wondering where in the world the white space ship could be.

But even true Nicol honestly hated to disappoint his friend. The only response he could give him, was to slowly shake his head a few times.

Now also thinking about where their old comrades could be.

And with those thoughts going through their minds the two friends once again turned their attention back towards the food in front of them. Not saying another word to each other.

000000

Meanwhile elsewhere on the ship.

The two red haired girls was slowly walking down the hall each of them with a deep angry frown on their foreheads. And even true both of them had been fighting and yelling at each other not all that long ago.

Neither one of them gave the magazine they had been fighting over a second thought. They where both far to busy discoursing how big a jeck Nicol had been back in the mess hall.

"I can't believe that guy, how the hell could he think we would forgive him that quickly. It's going to take at least one or two weeks before I'm going to talk with him again!" Luna said in a loud determined tone. While thinking hard about how she could most easily avoid Nicol for such a long time. He was after all one of her most dear friends on board the Minerva.

But before she could really give it all that much thought her little sister suddenly began talking in a somewhat far away tone.

"You do realize sis, that if we stay angry at him to long he might not take us out to lunch. Like he usually does when we arrive at a new place!" Meyrin said, thinking about some of the truly delicious food that Nicol from time to time bought for them.

It was always much more tasty then the food they got back here.

And she could easily tell by her sister's expression. That she was thinking about the exact same thing as she was, and finally after a few short minutes Luna muttered out a few unhappy words.

"Ah damn it all. Ok if it has to be like that, then why don't we forgive him tomorrow Meyrin? That way we can be completely sure that neither of us will miss out on whatever meal he is going to buy for us!" Lunamaria suggest in a somewhat thoughtful tone.

Not doing anything to hide, that she was already dreaming about the food Nicol would most likely buy for them.

Thinking a few seconds about her sister's words. Meyrin finally nodded slowly in agreement. "Ok we'll forgive him tomorrow then. Once we have the time to get off the ship and find a place where we can get some real food, not that crap they give us here!" Meyrin said, as she thought slightly about how completely gross some of the food could be on the Minerva.

It was actually a bit amazing that the chef had been let on to the ship in the first place.

And it really didn't help that Meyrin could be a bit fussy about what kind of food she would eat. She really hated stuff that was to fattening, she certainly didn't want a big waistline then the one she had already.

She was truthfully considering going on yet another diet.

And it was only thanks to all the yummy food Nicol kept on buying to them every time they reached a new place. That actually prevent her from starting on one more of her diets.

But before she could think all that much about it. Luna's voice interrupted her thoughts.

"By the way sis, you should have meet the new pilot that joined us not that long ago. I'm telling that guy was hilarious, he even manage to get Shinn to accept him almost immediately!" She said, laughing softly over the conversation she had heard between Shinn and the newcomer.

If that guy continued being so funny. Lunamaria had no doubt that the GOUF pilot would fit in quite well on the Minerva.

But her sister next words kinda ruined her mood a bit. "I can always meet him later. Right now the only thing I really want to do is go to my room and read the rest of my magazine. It was just getting interesting when somebody was rude enough to interrupt me" Meyrin said, while taking a small glance down at the magazine she was still carrying around in a tight grip.

Hearing Meyrin say that.

Lunamaria immediately turned around and looked back at her sister. "Well I'm sorry that I interrupt you. I just don't think it's healthy for you to keep on reading all of those gossip magazines. It's not like you can blame me for looking out for my younger sister!" Lunamaria said in a loud tone.

Before she too took a brief glance down at the magazine. Which Meyrin was doing everything possible. To make sure that she wouldn't suddenly try and take it from her one more time.

Seeing her being so protective of something like that, was all Luna need to let out a deep sigh, as she slowly turned her eyes upwards.

"You don't have to worry sis. I'm not going to take it again! But couldn't you at the very least try and find something a bit more intellect to read Meyrin. What about comic books or something like that?" Luna suggest, hoping that her younger sister would listen to her for a change.

But not all that surprisingly her sister's response wasn't the one she wanted to hear. "I'm already reading comic books, they are even more entertaining and funny then stuff like this!" Meyrin said in a happy tone.

Just before she opened the magazine again, where she immediately found the spot she had gotten to before her sister had taken the magazine away from her.

Watching her for a second or two.

Lunamaria once more let out a deep sigh, as she wonder slightly how in the world Meyrin could be the Minerva's CIC, when she was so completely addicted to junk like that.

She did however not get the opportunity to come up with any kind of answer to her own question. Before Meyrin walked slowly past her. Yet before she got all that far, she turned around and looked back at her.

"Do you want to go to my room and just read and relax for a few hours? You did leave one of your more interesting books the last time you visited me" Meyrin asked, hoping slightly that her sister wouldn't mind spending a little time with her.

Not that she would get mad if Luna said she had something else to do, her red mobile suit was after all still damage, after the previous battle they had been in.

But once Lunamaria told her that she could really use a few hours of rest.

Meyrin felt a small smile ran over her lips, while the two siblings continued the rest of the way to Meyrin's room. Both of them looking forward to just lay around and be lazy the next couple of hours.

And once they reached Meyrin's room.

It did not take long before Lunamaria was laying on her sister bed reading in her book, while Meyrin was sitting over by the desk, quietly doing one of the crossword puzzles that was inside the magazine she had been carrying around for such a long time.

But even true both girls was determined to spend some time together. It only took a few seconds before Lunamaria slowly drifted off to sleep.

Not that Meyrin had anything against that.

She already knew how tough and exhausting it was for her sister to pilot her ZAKU so often. And if getting some sleep was what she need right now, there was no way that Meyrin was going to disturb her.

So after looking at her a bit longer, she once more turned her attention back towards the crossword puzzle.

"Please have a good long nap big sis" Meyrin mumbled in a quiet tone. While she tried her very best to come up with some kind of answer to the small project that was laying in front of her.

To be continued.

I'm sorry but the episode where the Minerva fought at the Lohengrin Gate. Is not something I'm going to write about. I just couldn't figure out what alterations I could make in that battle.

So I decided skip it and write about another battle entirely, which was the one at the start of this chapter. I do hope you guys enjoyed it.

I'll see all of you next time.


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 21

It was about a week after Heine Westenfluss had officially joined up with the Minerva.

Which meant that now the enormous grey Zaft space ship had six mobile suit.

Not that there had been any use for them since the battle at the Mahamul base. Ever since that little fight, everything had been somewhat peaceful. Something most of the crew was enjoying a lot.

Even now as the ship was slowly approaching Zaft's coastal city base by Diocuia.

All of the pilots was outside on the ship's deck taking in the lovely view of the big city they could now see almost clearly in the distance.

Unfortunately the peacefulness up there didn't last for long before the only female up there opened her mouth and yelled out in a very excited tone.

"Wow this place is just wonderful. I kinda wish I had a cute boyfriend that would invite me out on a few dates, in such a beautiful city!" Lunamaria shouted loudly.

Then took a short glance over at Athrun. Somewhat hoping that her loud words about a boyfriend would somehow get his attention. But much to her irritation and disappointment he just continued standing there taking in the view.

Which was more then enough to make a deep unhappy frown ran over her face.

Just as she looked away from him again. Why the heck was it so difficult to get that guys attention.

Why was all the men in this world so damn brain dead whenever a girl was trying to hint that they liked them. She had seriously hoped that her words would at the very least had gotten some kind of reaction out of him.

But he just kept on standing there like she wasn't even presence. And it was actually becoming somewhat obvious for her that his thoughts was quite far away right now.

Which only served to annoyed the red haired girl even more, what the heck could that guy be thinking so strongly about that he didn't hear what she was saying.

She did however not even get the chance to even consider asking about what was going through his mind.

When suddenly Heine stepped over and wrapped his arm around her slender waist. Making her jump slightly, as she turned around and looked directly in to the eyes of the orange haired dude, wondering slightly what in world he was up to now.

But before she had the opportunity to ask him about it.

He gave her a small yet gentle smile. "Well if you truly want to go on a date, I seriously wouldn't mind taking you on one. You just tell me where exactly you want to go and I'll take you there as fast as possible!" He said in a determined tone, while not doing a thing to hide that he was flirting with her.

And even true Lunamaria was a bit flattered by the attention she hurried reached down and pushed his arm away.

And before he could do anything else she took a long step away from him. "Well as lovely as that sounds Heine. I don't think I know you well enough to go on dates with you!" She said in a gentle tone.

Hoping intently that he would accept this explanation.

She seriously didn't want him and everybody else up there to know, that the real reason why she didn't want to go out with him.

Was because she had her eyes on somebody else. But when she again took a small glance over at Athrun she notice that he still wasn't paying any attention to what she and Heine was talking about, which made her more then just a little angry, why in the world couldn't he at least pretend to listen to them.

But just as she was about to mumble out a few minor curses, Nicol stepped over beside her.

"If you really want to take a look around the city Luna. I don't mind taking you, truth be told I was actually planing to take a look around by myself. It truly is a lovely city. But before we go anywhere, we should perhaps consider asking Meyrin if she wants to join us" the green haired teen said. While once more looking back at the town.

Hearing her friend offer to do something like that, Luna was just about to give him a reply, when Heine suddenly cut in to the conversation.

"Wow Amalfi! I seriously didn't think you where the type of guy, to date two women at once. And sisters none the least, please tell me your big secret?" The orange haired teenage requested in a deeply curious tone.

"What...wha...but...I'm not...!" That was pretty much all Nicol could get out, while a deep embarrassed blush ran over his entire face, as he continued trying to come up with a way to explain his close friendship with the two Hawke sisters.

But no matter how much he tried, the only thing he succeed in doing was playing fish for a very, very long time.

Yet before Nicol had the necessary time to get his voice back. Lunamaria quickly reached out and gave Heine a hard slap at the back of his head.

"The three of us is just friends you big idiot! Why the hell are all the males in this world either completely brainless or perverts?" She asked loudly, while she turned around on one foot and stormed off before any of the male pilots could say anything else stupid to her.

Seeing her leave in such a hysterical way Shinn couldn't help but let out a small whistle.

"Damn it! I seriously don't think I have ever seen her get so angry that quickly before. That really has to be a new record!" The Impulse pilot said loudly out between his deep laughter.

That almost murderous expression Lunamaria had on her face, just before she took off, was just so damn hilarious. It had been some time now since he had last seen her in such a bad mood.

And anybody that could get her that angry that quickly, was seriously somebody that deserved his respect. But as he was about to tell Heine that, somebody else cut in and began talking in a somewhat disapproval tone.

"That wasn't really a very nice thing to say, there is no way I could ever date two women at once, that's just so utterly disrespectful!" Nicol said doing nothing to hide that he was also a bit mad at the ship's newest crew member.

But before Heine could think up some kind of answer. The green haired teen turned away from him and left the deck too, determined to find Lunamaria as quickly as possible, so he could ask her if she was all right.

"Seriously man! Doesn't anybody on this ship knows how to take a joke or two?" The orange haired GOUF piloted asked, as he slowly reached up and removed a bit of sweat from his forehead.

"Nicol has never been good at figuring out when somebody is joking around. He tends to take it much more serious then it actually is. That's also why he had such a difficult time getting along with some of our old team mates!" Athrun said in a somewhat far away tone.

Thinking back to how badly Yzak and Dearka had treat the former Blitz piloted. Before Yzak had went over the deep end, and gotten himself killed by Kira.

It was only after that event. That Nicol and himself had been able to build up a friendship with Dearka. "Ok I'll remember that in the future. It's not really his fault that he can't recognize a joke, truth be told I actually feel a bit sorry for him, not having that ability!" Heine said seriously, as he smiled a bit about how many times he and his fellow soldiers had been going around pulling pranks on each other.

But if somebody didn't like stuff like that.

He certainly wasn't going to be the one to give that person a hard time, doing something like that was in his eyes consider as bullying and he truly hated those soldiers that did something like that to their comrades in arms.

"I'll apologize the next time I see him. Each of us needs to be able to work together, and we certainly can't do that if we don't get along" the orange haired man said.

Already considering going after the other GOUF piloted on the ship. But after a few seconds he decided that it was best to wait until the ship enter the port, that way he wouldn't have waste time running around all over the Minerva, searching for the slightly younger man.

Hearing those words Athrun smiled a bit, as he nodded a single time in understanding. "That's good news. I'm sure Nicol will be happy about that. Now then if there is nothing else we need to talk about, I have a few things I need to do before we disembark!" Athrun said.

Then turned around and calmly left the area, heading down towards his chamber where he was determined to take a quick shower before he left the ship.

It was no big secret that he had been working quite hard on the Saviour for the last couple of hours, which was something that had really build up a big sweat.

And if he was force to meet the base leader together with the captain and the second command. He seriously didn't want to smell like one who had never even heard of a shower before.

And he knew without a doubt, that the only thing that could remove the somewhat unpleasant smell was great deal of soap. And with that in mind it did not take long before he too disappeared from the deck.

Seeing his very first buddy on the ship disappear through the door.

Heine slowly turned and looked over at the two last people up there.

Rey had a slightly thoughtful look on his face, as he stood there looking out over the bright blue water the ship was sailing over. While the red eyed boy was messing around with something down in his pocket.

Which made Heine wonder a bit what he had down there.

But after a moment or two he made the decision that it really wasn't any of his business, no matter how curious he was about it. So after watching the two of them a bit longer he let out a small breath.

"Well if you guys are not going to say anything I think I'll head for the mess hall and get a nice cold soda, I'm getting quite thirsty over here" the man said, before he slowly turned away and walked off. Already considering what kind of soda he should get once he got down to the mess hall.

And just as he was about to enter the Minerva, he call back to the two other pilots that he would see them later.

And once the door flew shut behind the orange haired dude. Rey slowly turned his attention away from the ocean and over at the last person up there. "Now then there was actually something I would like to ask you Shinn. The new pilots what do you think about them?" The blond man asked in a slightly curious tone, while he stood there studying the boy's facial expression.

Hearing his friend ask that. Shinn stopped playing around with his sister's mobilephone, and pulled his hand up from his pocket, then he reached up and scratched the back of his neck a few times.

"Hm Heine is really funny. He can always find something funny to say no matter the circumstances!" The boy said, while thinking back to the many times he had seen the GOUF pilot mess around with other people.

Which had really been entertaining. And he was already looking forward to the next time Heine had an opportunity to make some trouble for somebody.

But before Shinn could give it all that much thought.

Rey's slightly loud voice suddenly snapped him back to reality. "You know that I wasn't just asking about Heine. I would also like to know your opinion on Athrun Zala!" The blond haired man explained.

He knew that Athrun had helped them out a few times since he joined up with the Minerva, but that certainly didn't mean that Rey was going to trust him.

In his eyes they could quite easily find another person to put in to the Saviour. Somebody they where certain that they had complete control over. And hadn't already betrayed Zaft once in the past, and could most likely do it again at some point in the future.

"I actually don't really know what to think about him. Sometimes I think he is a stuck-up bastard that should be taken down a peck or two. And other times he does seem like a nice enough guy. But I still don't like the idea of taking orders from him, he is still one of the newcomers!" Shinn said, from where he was standing beside Rey.

Still thinking hard about if there was anything else he need to tell his best friend on the Minerva, about Athrun Zala.

But finally after a few seconds. He decided that there was nothing else he wanted to say. So without saying another word he once more turned around and looked back down at the clear blue water beneath them.

Not noticing that Rey was still watching him with a deeply thoughtful look in his eyes.

And if Shinn had bothered taking a look at Rey, he would immediately have realized that he was thinking very hard about every single thing he had just said about the pilot of the red mobile suit.

"I'm glad you told me the truth Shinn. But what I'm really curious about knowing is if you trust the guy, can you honestly tell me that you are willing to work together with him, when you think about what he did two years ago" Rey said in a hard tone, and with a look on his face that made it clear that he was expecting Shinn to give him an honest answer.

But it took a few minutes before Shinn found out what he wanted to say to those words.

"Well I don't really blame him for that. His father was more then just a little insane. That was certain proven quite clearly by those bastards that tried to drop Junius Seven" he said, while thinking back to how difficult it had been to stop all of those damn terrorists.

He did however not do that for long before he slowly shook his head a few times, as he began talking in a somewhat displeased tone.

"If I really have to think of a reason not to trust him. It's properly because he has been helping out Orb and that blond bitch, he had with him the first time he was on the Minerva!" Shinn said, while a small angry frown ran over his forehead, as the face of Cagalli Yula Athha made it's way through his mind.

But once he heard Rey tell him that he was happy to know, that he wasn't the only person on board that was having problems trusting Athrun Zala.

"So why exactly Rey do you distrust him?" Shinn asked, wondering why precisely his friend had so much against having Athrun, as a part of the Minerva's crew.

It did however not take long before Rey smile a bit at him.

And began explaining that he quite seriously didn't feel like talking about that at the moment. But perhaps someday in the future, he would tell him about why he held so much distrust towards the blue haired guy.

And before Shinn could even consider complaining about that. Rey told him that the ship was finally entering the port.

Which meant that they should properly start getting ready to disembark. So they could take a look around the place, and without saying anything else Rey turned around and hurried made his way over to the entrance of the ship.

With Shinn looking after him the entire time. "You still owe me a bit of an explanation Rey. But I guess that can wait till later, truth be told I'm actually a bit curious about taking a look around this city. It really does seem like an interesting place!" The Impulse piloted said in a loud tone.

Just as he once more took a look out over the enormous city, where the Minerva was suppose to stay the next few days.

It really was quite an impressive sight.

But as he stood there taking it all in, his thoughts slowly turned over on something else.

And he began wondering if there was any cute girls in such a big town. It had been a long time now since he had last thought about finding himself a nice looking girlfriend to spend some time with.

And with that in mind he hurried turned away from the view, and rushed off after Rey that had enter the ship only a few minutes ago.

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It was about twenty minutes later when the Minerva's crew was finally ready to disembark.

And once they got outside they all immediately notice a great deal of the base personnel standing around obviously waiting for something.

"Wha...whats happening out here?" Meyrin asked, sounding very curious about the entire thing.

But unfortunately neither her sister that was standing just beside to her, or the two former members of the Le Creuset team that was over by the entrance of the ship had any kind of answer to her question.

And before they could really get in to a big discussion about the subject.

Yolant and Vino pushed their way past them and ran full speed over to all the other people.

Both of them shouting something about, that it wouldn't be long now before she would get there. "Who exactly are those two idiots talking about?" Lunamaria asked in a slightly angry tone, the two mechanics had been quite close to knocking her over.

And it had only been thanks to Nicol, who had immediately reached out and taken a hold on her hand that she hadn't ended up fallen over and gotten hurt. So after giving him a small yet grateful smile, before she slowly pulled her hand away from him.

Then turned and send of a small glare after the two rash mechanics, somewhat hoping that they would both realize that she was mad at them.

But they where far to busy yelling and screaming together with everybody else. To even notice something like that, which made the slightly angry girl roll her eyes a single time.

Before she looked away from them and over at her sister, that was obviously still trying to figure out what was going on.

Not that she had any luck with that. All of the people that apparently knew what was happening, was far to occupied at the moment, to realize that there was actually a few people gather there, that didn't have the slightest idea about what in the world all of this fuss was about.

It did however not take long before everybody there heard a well-known voice begin singing loudly.

Which was more then enough to make all of them look up at the pink ZAKU that was slowly descending down towards the ground. "That's actually an interesting colour to a mobile suit!" Nicol said from where he was standing.

Not that any of his comrades heard him.

Both of the Hawke sisters was busy enjoying the loud well sounding music, as the pink ZAKU Warrior landed softly at the exact spot that had obviously been made ready for it.

And it did not take long before they all saw Lacus Clyne stand up on the hands of the mobile suit. Doing her best to perform as well as possible for the big audience that had most likely been waiting for hours to hear her singing.

But even true most people there, truly did love listening to the pink haired beauty.

There was one person presence, that wasn't all that happy about seeing the fake Lacus again. Athrun didn't really like the clinging girl, she act almost like she thought that the two of them where engaged.

Even true he had tried explaining to her, that the real Lacus and him hadn't been engaged for a very long time now. And when he saw her jump from the left hand and over on the right.

He just couldn't help but let out a tired somewhat annoyed sigh.

"Why in the world does she have to be here? I seriously don't feel like dealing with her right now" Athrun quietly asked himself. While thinking about what exactly Cagalli would do should she ever encounter the fake Lacus.

In those two years he had been dating Cagalli, she had always been very protective of their relationship. And now that the two of them where engaged with each other.

He had no doubt that her determination to keep other girls away from him had increase drastically.

And he knew that if she saw the way Meer kept on clinging to him, she would without a doubt strangle the fake Lacus.

Not that he liked any of Meer's somewhat seductive advances. "I better make sure to keep my distance from her" he mumbled quietly to himself. When he suddenly felt somebody graping on to him from behind.

And seeing as Meer Campbell was still performing up on the pink ZAKU. It certainly couldn't be her, and with that in mind he hurried took a look over his shoulder where he saw Meyrin lifting her head and look up at him.

"I'm really sorry about that, but somebody bumped in to me!" The red haired girl said, with a deep embarrassed blush on both of her cheeks.

Looking at her for a second or two Athrun gave her a small yet reassuring smile.

"That's all right. But could you please let go of me now?" He asked in a gentle tone. Wondering a bit how long the Minerva's CIC was going to embrace him from behind like this.

But once she heard those words she immediately stumble back away from him, almost tripping over a flat soda can, somebody had thrown just behind her.

Seeing what was about to happen Athrun hurried reached out and took a hold on her arm. Making sure that the girl wouldn't take a one way trip down to the hard concrete beneath them.

And once he was sure that she was standing securely on her feet, he slowly released his tight grip on her arm.

"You should try and be a bit more careful" he warn her in a kind tone.

Hearing him say that Meyrin nodded slowly in agreement, while looking straight in to Athrun's eyes. "I will, thank you very much for helping me" she said back, while giving him a small yet grateful bow.

After doing that she hurried moved a few short steps away from him, hoping to somehow get rid of the deep red blush, that was still covering most of her face.

Noticing her sister's somewhat embarrassed behaviour. Luna slowly narrowed her eyes a bit.

She seriously disliked the idea of having yet another rival for Athrun's affection. From what she had seen Cagalli Yula Athha clearly had a thing for him, and even true he was suppose to be engaged to Lacus Clyne she didn't have the slightest about how deep their relationship was.

And if Meyrin was crushing on him too. It could be even hard to get him to notice her. He wasn't really giving her all that much attention to begin with, something that actually annoyed her greatly.

How the heck could she get him to she her as a woman, and not just a fellow mobile suit pilot.

She knew she had to act quickly before one of the other girls got their claws on him.

And while trying her best to come up with some kind of plan. She slowly turned her eyes away from Meyrin and back at him, where she immediately noticed, that he was just standing there with a far away look on his face.

Which seriously made Lunamaria wish that she could somehow read minds, but unfortunately that was not an ability she possessed.

It was however quite obvious that there was a lot going through his head at the moment, and that he was not in the mood to talk. So after standing there watching him for a bit longer.

She decided that she wanted to hear Meyrin's opinion on the concert. Which meant that it only took a few seconds, before she was over by her sister that had finally regain her normal facial colour.

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At the same time Shinn was standing a bit by himself listening to the music, he might not be the biggest fan of Lacus Clyne.

But he did like the song she was singing right now. Truth be told he actually preferred her new singing style. The one she had two years ago, was somewhat boring in his eyes.

And the new clothes she was walking around in now, was no doubt quite attractive.

She was however to famous for his taste, he certainly didn't want to date a person that couldn't even walk down the street without being run over by annoying fans that wanted an autograph or something like that.

He wanted a peaceful and calm time when he was taking a girl out.

But even true he didn't want a relationship with the pink haired songster, it did not mean that he couldn't enjoy her music.

It really did sound amazingly good.

And with that in mind he again looked up at the girl as she jumped away from the pink ZAKU's left hand and back over on the right, where she immediately whirled around two times, before she once more continued singing and dancing around up on the mobile suit.

And one glance at her face, was more then enough to tell Shinn that she was really enjoying all the attention the audience was giving her.

Which actually made Shinn wonder a bit how somebody could be so keen on getting other people to notice them.

But seeing as this was the very first time he had ever seen Lacus Clyne in real life, he really didn't have the slightest clue about how the girl normally acted. But maybe once the concert was over he might consider asking Athrun to tell him a little about the pink haired songster.

The Saviour pilot was after all engaged to the performing girl. So he should most likely be able to tell him a few things about her, but when he turned his eyes over on his comrade he immediately noticed the somewhat unhappy expression Athrun had on his face.

Which made Shinn raise one of his eyebrows, wondering a bit what was bothering his fellow soldier.

But after watching him for a few seconds, Shinn made the decision that he really didn't want to know what Athrun was thinking about right now.

He could always ask him a few question about Lacus Clyne, once the concert was over, and all of them got back on board the Minerva.

So determined not to waste anymore time watching the slightly older teenager.

The Impulse pilot once more turned his attention back up towards the pink haired girl, that was obviously getting ready to sing yet another song for all the people gather out there.

Which was something that made most of the soldiers cheer loudly.

Just as she hurried moved back over on the left hand, where she immediately brought the microphone up to her mouth and began singing loudly out over her big assembling of audience, that by now was cheering even louder then before.

And even true Shinn did admit that she was doing a great job, all the cheering and shouting the other Zaft soldiers was making. Really did give him a small headache.

He had never liked being surround by so many people at the same time, which seriously made him consider going back to the Minerva, to get some distance from all the insufferable noise that was out there.

But a small look around himself made it clear that getting back to the ship could be quite hard.

There was just to many people assemble there for him to go anywhere. So after trying to find an escape route for a few seconds. He made the decision to move over to a small empty spot that wasn't being used for anything.

And it quickly became somewhat clear to him, that if he got over there he wouldn't have to worry much about being knocked over by some of the pink haired girl's crazy fans.

So after getting past a few female Zaft soldiers. It did not take long before he was standing over between two buildings. That was no doubt used to store a great deal of the many mobile suits, the base possessed.

And even true he was somewhat hiding away in there.

He could still quite clearly see Lacus Clyne's performance, which was actually a bit easier to hear, now that he wasn't completely surround by all of her annoying screaming fans.

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Meanwhile on the other side of the base fence. A great deal of civilians was also watching the pink haired girl perform. Most of them where truly enjoying listening to her song.

But there was however a single one of them, that was far more busy taking pictures of the celebrity.

'Now hurry up and turn this way you faker, I need just as few more good shots of you!' Miriallia thought, as she kept on taking one picture after another.

Hoping that somehow this could help her and the others figuring out who exactly this girl was. But no matter who the fake Lacus Clyne was, one thing was certain Miriallia did not like her.

She did after all go around pretending to be one of her best friends.

And that was not something Miriallia could easily forgive. She had known for quite a while now, that the only thing the real Lacus wanted was to live a peaceful life together with Kira.

So when that pretended had shown up. She had immediately decided to try and figure out who the other girl was. Yet that had proven to be quite hard seeing as this faker was almost a perfect copy.

'There just have to be something that can tell us a little about who this bitch really is!' The brown haired girl thought.

Just as she slowly zoomed in on the fake Lacus' face making certain to get a few good pictures of that, as she continued standing up on the ZAKU's hand performing loudly for her audience.

One thing Miriallia could easily tell about this girl was that she was really enjoying all of this attention.

It was almost like she just couldn't get enough of it, like she was actually addicted to having other people look at her. And that was certainly something the real Lacus would never do, the reason why she sang was simply because it made the people listening to her happy.

Which was actually one of the reasons why Miriallia disliked the fake Lacus so much.

"Well I got what I need, now I better hurry up and get out of here!" She said to herself. And was just about to stand up when something else caught her two watchful eyes, and without even think she slowly zoomed in on a certain blue haired man, she knew quite well.

"Hmm so he joined up with them again!" The girl said, while closely watching Athrun Zala through her expensive camera. And just as she was about to take a single picture of him, she noticed a certain green haired man walk over beside him.

And even true it had been two years since she had last seen that exact person.

She had no problems at all figuring out who that was. 'I certainly didn't expect to see the two of them here' the girl through while taking a picture of the two boys, that was obviously busy talking with each other about something.

Not that she had any idea about what it was.

There was just too much noise in the area for her to hear anything the two boys where saying.

So after taking yet one last glance back at the fake Lacus. She hurried got back up on her feet and quickly walked away from the area, before her two old comrade realized that she was there.

If they actually did see her there was a very big chance that they would ask about where the Archangel was hiding.

And there was just no way Miriallia wanted to tell them that right now. She wasn't entirely sure she could trust the two boys any longer. They where after all a part of Zaft again.

So if they start asking her about information about the Archangel's location. There was a high possibility that they might tell the wrong people. And there was no way she was going to let that happen.

Seeing as the man she loved was on board the Archangel together with a great deal of other friends.

And it was only when she was driving safely away from the area, that she let out a small sigh of relief.

From what she could tell none of the boys had noticed that she had been there.

And once she was absolutely certain that nobody was following her. She hurried stopped the car by the side of the road, where she immediately picked up her small black camera.

Where she hurried looked over all the pictures she had taken of the fake Lacus. Hoping to find at least one clue, that could tell them who she really was.

"This isn't working at all, I need to get back to my hotel room to take a better look at them" she said in a determined tone.

As she once more placed the camera down on the black leather chair beside her. After that she hurried reached out and started the car again, now heading as fast as possible back to the place that had been her home for the last couple of days.

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At the same time back at the base.

Athrun was fanatically looking around like he was searching for something. And it was only when Nicol reached over and place a hand on his shoulder, that he finally stopped.

"What's wrong Athrun? You are acting somewhat strange at the moment" the green haired teen said, wondering what in the world that could be bothering his friend.

"I don't know Nicol, I just had a strong feeling that somebody was watching me, but it's gone now!" Athrun explained, while taking yet another glance around to try and find the source of those feelings.

But from what he could tell everything seemed pretty normal now. Even with so many people gather there, none of them where looking in his direction, they where all far to busy watching Meer's performance.

Hearing his old friend say that Nicol turned and also took a small look around.

But just like Athrun he couldn't really see anything abnormal around the base. So after making completely sure that nobody was watching them, he once more turned his attention back towards Athrun.

"If there truly was somebody watching you Athrun, that person is gone now, so lets just forget about it and enjoy miss Lacus performance" Nicol said in a calm tone.

While he again looked up at the pink haired girl on the ZAKU. He might not say out loud but he was kinda amazed about how much the songster had change since the last time he seen her.

If he honestly didn't know any better, he would have sworn that it was a completely different person that was dancing around up on the mobile suit.

Truth be told there was actually more then a few things that confused him about miss Lacus, like why she was here helping out Zaft, while her husband and the rest of the Archangel crew was hiding out somewhere far away from here.

It seriously didn't make any sense to him.

From what he knew. Kira and Lacus was so much in-love with each other, that it would no doubt be very painful for both of them to be away from one another for a long period of time.

Yet now miss Lacus was up on the pink mobile suit, quite clearly having the time of her life, while her husband was nowhere to be found. It really was somewhat of a mystery for Nicol.

But as he turned and was about to voice his thoughts to Athrun.

The captain of the Minerva suddenly stepped over beside them. "I'm sorry to interrupt your fun. But the Chairman have been requesting that the two of you and the rest of the Minerva's piloting staff eats dinner with him, this evening!" Talia explained.

Feeling just a bit irritated, that she had to talk so loud, to make sure that both of the pilots heard what she had to say over the music.

But when she saw both of them give her a small salute. She knew that they had understood everything she had just told them.

"We will make certain to be there on time captain. And if you see the Chairman again, please do tell him that we look forward to it!" Nicol told her, in his usual well mannered tone.

Which made Talia nod a single time in understanding, as she quickly turned around and walked of towards the Minerva.

The music might have been entertaining at the begin, but now she was seriously getting tired of not being able to hear herself think.

She just hoped that Rey would be so kind to tell Lunamaria, Shinn and Heine about what they where all going to be doing this evening.

There was just no way she was going to waste time searching for those three in this crowd, it was like looking for a needle in a haystack.

Truthfully the only reason she had taken the time to tell Athrun and Nicol about it. Was simply because she had noticed the two young men, on her way back to the peace and quietness that was waiting for her back on board the Minerva.

Seeing the brown haired woman disappear in the direction of the Minerva, Nicol slowly turned and looked back over at Athrun.

"Well it looks like we wouldn't be able to enjoy anymore of miss Lacus concert. It would be very disrespectful if the both of us showed up late to a dinner with the Chairman" the teenager said.

As he saw Athrun nod a single time in agreement. And without saying another word to each other.

The two pilots immediately began making their way through the thick crowd of people, heading slowly back towards the Minerva.

To be continued.


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter 22

It was a few hours after miss Lacus' concert.

But even with everything that had happened today, the base was now calm and very peaceful. It was actually a bit hard to believe, that there had been so much noise there only a little while ago.

There was however a few people that couldn't rest yet.

The piloting staff from the Minerva was slowly being lead by a blue haired female soldier. That had been order to take them to where the Chairman was waiting for their arrival.

But even true none of them where really saying all that much right now. Heine was walking beside their lovely guide.

"You do know that if I ever had the opportunity, I would surely conquer the world for you" he told her in a sweet tone. With a huge charming smile on his face, as he slowly leaned in a looked straight in to her deep pink eyes.

Which made it pretty obvious for everybody that was watching, that he was seriously expecting the girl to fall for all of his flirting. Unfortunately the only thing she did was smile a bit at him.

"You really shouldn't make such promises like that. Some girls might just hold you to it!" She explained, seriously hoping that this would be enough to get the high ranking soldier to stop with his flirting.

But one glance at his face was all she need to tell that he was far from done yet.

That look he had now made it pretty clear that he was thinking quite hard about what else to say. And finally after a few minor seconds he once more leaned in close.

"Ok so no conquering the world. But perhaps there is something else I can help you out with, my lovely lieutenant" he offer using the exact same tone as before. And still with that somewhat creepy, yet charming smile all over his face.

It was getting more and more obvious for everybody there. That he was not going to slow down with his bad attempts to get the beautiful female soldier to go out with him, before they reached the place where the Chairman was waiting for them.

She on the other hand just took a brief glance over at him, a small part of her wishing that she could tell him off in a more rude way.

But seeing as he had a much high rank then her, she had to stay somewhat respectful no matter what. But she seriously disliked those kind of men who wouldn't take a rejection when they heard one.

And this guy was seriously begin to get on her nerves.

Hearing him say that the female lieutenant couldn't help but glare a bit at the orange haired man.

This was just getting more and more annoying by every second. Why in the world was it that this guy couldn't understand that she wasn't interested in him.

"I'm sorry sir, but I can't really think of anything I would need your help for. But thank you very much for asking!" she said. Trying her best sound grateful, which was actually a bit hard. Seeing as she was just about ready to throw him out of the nears window.

But even true everybody else there had realized that their guide was in a very bad mood right now.

Heine still wasn't done trying to win the light blue haired beauty over. He kept on talking to her in that sweet voice, he even went so far as to offer her a ride around and over the base in his mobile suit.

But not all that surprising she declined that too.

"How long do you think it will take before he realize that she wants nothing to do with him?" Shinn asked, while taking a look over at Rey that was walking just next to him.

Also watching Heine trying to get the woman to realize that he wasn't such a bad guy. And that it would be fun if the two of them went on a few dates together.

But the female lieutenant just kept on saying no to everything. Now looking a tiny bit like she was just about ready to explode at any moment.

But much to Rey's small amazement, she somehow manage to keep her obviously deep wrath under control.

"Actually Shinn. I do believe that Heine already knows that the lieutenant doesn't want to go out with him. The reason he keep on asking, is simply because he finds her reactions amusing" Rey said making sure that the blue haired woman couldn't hear him.

Not that there was many chances that would happen. She apparently was way to busy rejecting all of Heine's suggestion for where they could go on their first date.

Thinking a few seconds about his blond friend's words Shinn let out a small chuckle, as he again turned his attention back towards Heine and the obviously pissed of female lieutenant.

"Now that you mention it Rey, this really is funny as hell to watch. I wonder how long it will take, before she actually lose her temper" the boy said. Doing nothing at all to hide just how amusing he was finding this whole display, between his fellow pilot and the female officer.

He did however not get all that long to enjoy the entertainment. Before Luna opened her mouth and told them her thoughts, about the way Heine kept on bugging the only other female present.

"All of you men really does have a sick sense of humour. I seriously can't believe that guys think this is entertaining. It's times like these that it should be permitted for female soldiers everywhere to give you stupid males a good whack or two!" Luna said in a wicked tone.

That made it pretty clear that she mean every single word she had just said.

And once she saw Shinn tremble slightly. She took one glance at Rey but he didn't do anything he just turned his eyes away from her, not showing the least bit sign of fear.

Feeling just a tiny bit more angry at that. Lunamaria turned around and looked back at Athrun and Nicol that was somewhat quietly watching the display.

"And what about you two? What is your opinion on this?" She growled out in a unhappy tone. While glaring a few times between the two former members of the Le Creuset team. Clearly wanting the two of them to give her an honest response to all of this.

But when Nicol was about to open his mouth and was just about to say something. She immediately turned her angry gaze completely over on him, almost making him fall over at the share madness that was in the girls eyes.

"Well...I'm...I'm...not...sure..." that was pretty much all he got out before he once again looked down at the floor.

Now considering deeply if the words he had wanted to say to her, was really the most smart thing to say. But when she took a step closer to him, asking him what he had been about to say.

Nicol almost stopped in his tracks, as he tried with all of his will power to get his mouth to work, which was pretty much impossible at the moment.

The way she kept on glaring at him, made Nicol even more nervous then a rookie pilot would be in his very first battle.

He had never been all that good at handling angry woman, seeing as the only experience he had ever had with the opposite sex, was with Mayura and she had gotten killed, by the lunatic in the Calamity before their relationship, could really get anywhere.

So he frankly had no idea about what he was suppose to say to Lunamaria at times like these. He seriously didn't want the red haired girl even more mad at him.

But as he was trying to come up with some kind of reasonably response. His old friend decided to come to his rescue. "Of course both Nicol and I agrees with you Lunamaria. It really is quite disrespectful the way Heine keeps on flirting with that lieutenant" Athrun said in a serious tone, while taking a brief glance over in Heine's direction, doing his best to sound and look at least a bit angry about the whole thing.

Hearing his friend say that. Nicol immediately regained some of his courage, as he took a single step close towards the red haired girl.

"I believe Athrun's right Luna. It truly is childish and very disrespectful the way Heine continuous to annoys the poor woman" the green haired teen said. Making sure to send Heine a light unhappy glare.

Just to show Lunamaria that he was on her side in this.

Looking a few more times between the two men, Lunamaria smiled a bit at them. "That's good, I'm really glad to know, that it's not all of you who are being such big jerks" she said in a low tone.

Before she turned around and made her way over to Heine. Utterly determined to help the female officer, get the orange haired man of her back.

Watching Lunamaria for a second or two Nicol finally let out a small relieved breath. "That was close Athrun. I was almost certain that she was going to go through with that hitting and slapping she was talking about before!" Nicol said.

Now seeing Lunamaira shove herself in between Heine and the lieutenant. Not doing anything to hid that she was angry at their fellow pilot.

Hearing Nicol say that Athrun turned and smile a bit at his old friend. "After dating Cagalli for such a long time. It's quite easy to figure out when it's best just to agree to whatever she is saying, and Lunamaria is pretty much the same way" the blue haired teen explained in a somewhat far away tone, as his thoughts once more turned over on his truly beautiful fiancée.

"I see I'm relieved that you knew a way to get both of us out of that mess" Nicol said, while wondering a bit just how much it would have hurt if Luna really had hit him.

Even after knowing her for such a long time. He had next to no idea about how hard she could actually punch.

And he had honestly no desire to find out any time soon. He did however not get long to think about that before their guide told them that they had finally arrived at their destination.

But before any of them could even think about knocking on the door.

Heine quickly reached out and grabbed on to the lieutenant's left hand, holding on to it in a tight grip, as he again leaned in and looked straight in to her pink eyes.

"I know our time together was cut short. But I seriously do look forward to see you again future mother of my two or three children!" He said loudly. While he pulled her hand up and gave it a gentle kiss.

But as he was doing that, he didn't really noticed how big the vein on her forehead was now. And how tight she was squeezing her right fist together.

It truly did look like she was just about ready to give him a good beating.

But before she actually did anything she would most likely regret once she got out of there. She slowly pulled her hand away from him.

"I'll have to be going now. It was a real pleasure to take you guys here" she said. Trying her best to at least sound somewhat believable, as she once more turned her head and gave Heine yet another evil glare.

And before the others could say anything back to her.

She hurried turned around and almost ran off full speed down the hall. Not wanting to spend even one minute longer with that insufferable man then she already had.

"Ah man, I didn't think she would run away like that, she didn't even tell me her name" Heine said. Truly sounding very depressed about that. He did however not get long to mourn around about that before Lunamaria actually did give him a small whack on top of his head.

"You...you really are an idiot!" She told him.

While she hurried made her way past him and over to the door, which she immediately gave a few hard knocks. Hoping that they wouldn't have to stand out here too long, she seriously wasn't in the mood for that right now.

But fortunately it only took about a small minute before a friendly voice invited them in. Hearing that Lunamaria quickly reached out and turned the door knob, so she and the other pilots had access to the chamber.

Where all of them immediately noticed all the delicious looking food was just standing out on the table. Obviously just waiting for them to sink their teeth in to it.

But before they could get over the light shock of seeing just how much food that had been prepared for them. Gilbert gave each of them a truly friendly smile, as he made his way over to them.

"I'm happy to see that all of you accept my dinner invitation. There is truly a lot of things I would like to discourse with each of you. So will you please come in and make yourself at home" The Chairman said using the same well mannered tone as before.

Which apparently was enough to finally get the six mobile suit pilots out of their minor shock.

And it only took about a minute before Athrun took a small step forward. "Ohhh sorry about the lack of attention sir. All of us was a bit distract by the big feast that has been prepared for us!" Athrun said. Then quickly gave the leader of Zaft and the Plants a respectful salute, which prompted the other pilots to immediately do the same.

Each of them a bit concerned about their lack of respect towards the Chairman. But much to their small amazement he just waved it off like it was nothing.

"Never mind about that. Now come in a sit down, all of you much be pretty tired after everything you have been through. Truth be told I'm actually a bit curious about hearing what you have to tell me about your adventures" he told them in a friendly tone.

As he turned and slowly made his way over to the enormous table where he immediately sat down by the end of it.

That way he would easily be able to see the six mobile suit pilots. While he was having this conversation with them. But the only once moving right now was Rey and Heine, which meant that it did not take long before the two of them where sitting by the table.

But the rest of the pilots still didn't move from their position by the door.

And it was only when he asked them one more time to please come in and sit down, that they finally started moving.

Which meant that it did not take long before the Chairman and the six pilots was calmly eating the truly yummy food. That had quite obviously, taken a very long time to prepare.

"Now then why don't we let our only female companion start of by telling us all what she has experienced since the Minerva got down here" Gilbert said in a friendly tone, while smiling a bit at Lunamaria.

Who on the other hand was a bit surprised by the Chairman's request, when she had been told that she and the other pilots was going to have dinner with the lead of Zaft. She had quite honestly never expected, that he would be interested in hearing about her experiences.

Yet now he was sitting almost directly in front of her with a kind look on his face.

"Please go on. There is no need for you to be so nervous, I already told you to make yourself at home" he said in a voice full of kindness, that did calm Luna down a bit. So after just sitting there for a second or two looking at the friendly look on the man's face. She slowly reached out and took a hold on the glass of soda that was standing beside her plate.

And after taking a short sip of the yellow liquid.

She began telling the Chairman and the five other mobile suit pilots, about some of the things she had been through, ever since the Minerva had arrived on earth.

000000

It was about an hour later when Nicol finished telling the small gathering of people about his experiences down here.

And without anything else to say the only thing he and the other pilots could do at the moment, was to stay put while waiting to hear what the Chairman had to say about everything they had just told him.

It did however take about five minutes before the black haired man let out a small breath, as he slowly moved his eyes over the six pilots he was having dinner with.

But finally after just sitting there for a little while. He slowly stood up from his seat and made his way over to the only open window in the chamber. Once over there he looked out at the slowly descending sun, while enjoy the nice evening breeze that was blowing softly outside.

"It would seem like all of you, have been through a lot in your time down here. But I'm afraid it's not over yet, it will still take some time before the world will once more get back on the road of peace and harmony" Gilbert said in a somewhat far away tone.

Just as he continued standing there watching the beautiful view, it truly was a magnificent sight seeing the sun disappearing in the horizon.

He did however not get long to really enjoyed, before one of the pilots interrupted his thoughts.

"Why is that sir? From what I have heard Zaft has been doing pretty much everything possible to stop the war?" Luna asked in a wondering tone. She was not nearly as nervous about speaking and asking the Chairman questions now, as she had been when she and the others had first arrive there.

Hearing his only female guest ask him that. Gilbert slowly turned away from the view, and looked back at the six young people, where he immediately noticed that all of them had a somewhat curious expression on their faces.

Seeing them all look so interested in getting some answers he smile a bit at them, just as he began talking in a very deep yet thoughtful tone.

"The reason why this war wouldn't end anytime soon. Is simply because there are people in this world that will do everything in their power to make sure that mankind continuous to fight no matter what" Gilbert explained. Still not moving his eyes away from the teenagers in front of him.

He did however not have to wait all that long for some kind of reaction.

Shinn almost flew up from his seat, and slammed both of his hands with full force down in to the table, almost knocking a few things over.

Not that he cared one bit about that right now. The only thing on his mind at the moment was who in their right mind, would wish for something as terrible as a war to continue.

"Who are those bastards? And why haven't they been stopped already?" He asked loudly, truly hoping with all of his heart that the Chairman had some answer to these questions.

If there really was a bunch of people out there who wanted to fight that badly. He was determined to stop them no matter the costs, such war-crazy people truly deserved to rot in hell.

Smiling a bit at the boy's reaction Gilbert continued with the explanation.

"Those people Shinn a mercenaries of war. People who lives by selling weapons to others, and if we suddenly stops fighting like we did two years ago, then they don't earn mone.,Aand that's why they want to make certain that we Coordinators keeps on doing battle with the Naturals for as long as possible!" The black haired man said in a slightly angry tone.

Just as he turned and took one more look out of the window.

Now waiting to hear what the five other the mobile suit pilots had to say. He already knew Rey's opinion on this, but he would certainly be lying if he said he wasn't a bit curious about hearing the others teens thoughts on this matter.

"What a bunch of disgusting creeps. But what I really want to know, is the names of those bastards and where exactly they are hiding?" Heine said in a somewhat unhappy tone.

While wondering hard about how in the world somebody like that could get away unpunished. Even after throwing the entire world in to yet another big war. The last one had truly been bad enough.

Looking a few seconds at Heine and the five other pilots.

Gilbert could quite easily tell that they where all feeling a little impatient at the moment.

It was obvious that they all wanted to hear the answers to these questions, and not wanting to let them wait too long, he let out a small breath as he once more began talking in the same far away tone as before.

"I have very little information about where exactly their hideout is. I already have a great deal of reliable people looking in to that. But what I can tell you now is that the group itself is called Logos, and that they a being lead by a man named Djibril" he said in a tone that made it clear for all of them.

Ehat he was feeling a great deal of contempt towards this Djibril character, and the terrorist organization that man was suppose to lead.

Slowly going over everything the Chairman had just told them.

Athrun rubbed his cheek a few times in a thoughtful way. But after sitting like that for a few moments. The blue haired teenager once more turned his attention back towards the leader of Zaft.

"So what exactly are you planing to do about Logos sir?" Athrun asked, doing nothing to hid just how serious he was taking this matter.

He really didn't like the idea that there was a bunch of terrorist out there, that had so much influence about everything that was going on in this world.

Unfortunately he didn't get much time to sulk over that before the Chairman interrupted his thoughts.

"That's something I have been giving a lot of thoughts these last few days Athrun, which have made me realize that no matter how many times we go up against the Earth Forces, we will never be able to really end the war, as long as Logos and Djibril exist in this world" the man explained, sounding very serious about everything he had just told them.

He did however not give any of the teenagers, much time to really think about his words. Before he once more continued talking in the same serious tone as before.

"And that's why I have decided to launch a campaign to finally put an end to Logos! Which will without a doubt be a very difficult task to accomplish. That's why I'm hoping that all of you will be willing to assist in finding and removing these terrible people from this world. Once they are gone we will finally be able to obtain ever lasting peace" the man said, slowly moved his eyes over each of them.

"You can count on me sir. I'll do everything I can to help take out those Logos bastards!" Shinn shouted loudly, as he again jumped up from his seat, with a determined expression on his face.

It pretty much seemed like he was just about ready to rush out of there any minute now.

So he could go search for the terrorists group on his own. But before he could do that, his common sense told him, that he didn't have the slightest idea about where to even start looking for Logos.

And once he heard the Chairman tell him that he was truly grateful for his assists.

Shinn once more dropped back down in his seat. Just as all the other pilots began telling the lead of Zaft that they where ready to help out too.

"I'm pleased to know that I can count on all of you. It's not going to be easy to rid the world of Logos. But with such find pilots like yourself helping out. I'm certain that it will only be a matter of time before we can accomplish that task" Gilbert said, while smiling proudly at each of them.

Just as all of them stood up and gave him a respectful salute.

Seeing them do that the smile on Gilbert's face grew a little bigger. As he stood there debating with himself about, just how useful the group of pilots would really be in his plans for this world.

But as those thoughts was slowly making their way through his mind.

He suddenly got eye contact with Rey who hurried gave him a brief signal, which was all Gilbert need to know, that there was something Rey wanted to talk with him about, once this was over.

So after giving his most loyal supporter a brief nod. He again turned his attention back towards the rest of the pilots.

"Now then, I'm truly sorry to end our party this early. But there is still a few things that requires my attention before I turn in for the night, there is however something I would like to ask you about Athrun. So if you have no pressing matter you need to attend to, I would like for you to stay behind for a few minute" he explained, as he saw the Saviour piloted nod a single time in understanding.

While everybody else in there started to get ready to leave the room. Each of them making extra sure to say thank you for all the delicious food they had gotten while being there.

And once all of them where gone, Gilbert slowly reached over and picked up his glass of expensive wine. Which he immediately took a light sip off, clearly enjoying the taste of it, as it made it's way down his throat.

"The reason why I ask you to stay behind Athrun. Is because ever since I heard of the Archangel's short reappearance, I have been wondering about where that ship went after Orb. So I was hoping that you had some clues about it's whereabouts?" Gilbert asked. Trying not to show the boy just how important this truly was for him.

If they could somehow find and destroy the Archangel now, they wouldn't have to deal with it's interference later.

There was just no way he would let that ship ruined his plans, like it had done for his old friend Rau Le Creuset.

If the Archangel and it's crew hadn't existed. He was pretty certain that Rau's plans for humanity would most definitely have become a reality, he did however not get much time long to wonder about that, before Athrun's voice interrupted his deep thoughts.

"I'm sorry sir, but I have no idea about where the Archangel is. I have been wonder about that ever since I heard about it's reappearance. But no matter how much I think about it, I just can't figure out where exactly it disappeared to" the blue haired teen explained. While wondering slightly, if there was anybody nearby they could ask about the Archangel's location.

But the only one he could think about right now, that might know where the Archangel was hiding was Sai Argyle and he was all the way back in Orb.

So there was no way Athrun could get in touch with him.

Beside the last time Athrun had seen the slightly older teenager, he was walking around with his highly pregnant fiancée.

Which meant that either the girl already have given birth to their first child, or she was just about ready to do it any day now. And no matter how much loyalty Athrun had towards the Chairman.

He just couldn't bring himself to involve Sai in this. And ruin his chance to have a normal family life together with the woman he loved, and their small child.

And with that in mind he slowly shook his head a few times, as he again looked over at the Chairman. "If you want me to I can try and find it Mr Chairman! But you properly knows as well as I do that there is a lot of places for that ship to hid" Athrun said, while thinking about all the places the Archangel could be, now that it had the ability to go under water.

Thinking a bit about Athrun's offer about going out there to search for the Archangel. Gilbert reached up and rubbed his chin in a thoughtful way. But after doing that for a few seconds, he finally lowed his hand again.

"I believe that it would be best that you continue staying with the Minerva Athrun. It's not like you have any leads about the Archangel's whereabouts, so for now we just have to be patient and wait until it makes another appearance!" Gilbert said. Somewhat annoyed that Athrun didn't have any information he could use to find the Archangel.

Not that he showed the blue haired teenage that.

Athrun might be a part of Zaft soldier again. Yet it was pretty obvious that he was still having feelings for all of his friends on the Archangel, if only he could find away to rid himself of those feelings, he would no doubt be an even more powerful warrior then he was already.

Yet one look at the boy's face made it pretty clear, that he wasn't going to forget his old comrades anytime soon.

But perhaps by staying on the Minerva those feelings would disappear with time. And once they did, he would most certainly gain an even better fighter, then the one that was standing in front of him right now.

And while still thinking about that. He again opened his mouth and asked the boy one more important question. "And the real Lacus Clyne? Is she on board that ship too Athrun?" He asked in a kind tone, that showed next to no hints about, just how nasty and utterly sinister his thoughts really was.

Hearing the man ask him that. Athrun got a slightly thoughtful look on his face.

"Yes, she is most definitely with that ship. There is no way Kir...the crew would leave Orb without her" the blue haired teenager explained, while once more trying to come up with a method to find, or at the very least get in contact with the Archangel.

But unfortunately he was pretty much empty for ideas. If the Archangel wanted to stay in hiding. It would be almost impossible to find it.

Unless they could somehow find a few more good clues, about where to look for it.

"I think you are right Mr Chairman, the only thing we can do now is wait until they decide to show themselves again. And there is really no telling when that's going to happen" Athrun said in a far away tone.

Now thinking about why exactly Archangel's crew had made the decision to disappear like this.

Seeing just how far away Athrun was right now. Gilbert couldn't help but narrow his eyes a bit, as he thought about everything the young man had just told him, there wasn't really any information he could use to locate the Archangel.

"Well if you do hear anything then please tell me Athrun? I would very much like to have a little talk with the real Lacus Clyne. I was hoping to somehow convince her to come back home to the Plants!" Gilbert said, with a great deal of thoughts flying through his head. He was a tiny bit annoyed that those assassins he had send after the pink haired girl, hadn't somehow succeeded in taking her life.

Taking a second or two to go over the Chairman's words.

Athrun instantly realized. That it was highly unlikely that Lacus would ever go back home to the Plants. She did after all love her quiet and peaceful life together with Kira.

Yet not wanting to give the Chairman any bad news. Athrun quietly decided not to mention anything about the big lifestyle change Lacus had chosen to make after the last war had been brought to an end.

He did however not have to stay quiet for long. Before the Chairman walked over and placed his now empty wine glass down on the table.

"Well seeing as talking about the Archangel wouldn't bring us any close to finding it, we might as well stop this discussion now. I do have a few important things I need to discourse with Rey" he said in a friendly tone, as he watched the young man get up from his seat.

Which meant that it did not take long before the Chairman and the Saviour piloted was making their way over to the door.

But just as soon as they stepped out in to the halls, somebody yelled out Athrun's name quite loudly.

And before he had anytime to react Meer Campbell jumped straight towards him. And immediately wrapped both of her arms around his back, hugging him so tight that it was pretty much impossible for Athrun to just shove her away.

Even true that was frankly what he really wanted to do. Especially when he noticed how she kept on pressing her breasts up against him, obviously trying to seduce him.

And just the thought about how much this would hurt Cagalli was more then enough for him to fight back against clinging pink haired girl.

But when it became clear that she was not going to release him anytime soon. He felt a small yet very unhappy frown, ran over his forehead. "Could you please let go of me already!" He asked in a not so friendly tone.

Just as he again tried to push the highly irritating girl away from him. But neither his struggling or his words seemed to have the big effect on her.

If anything she was holding him even more tightly now then before.

Which made Athrun narrowed his eyes a bit, doing nothing to hid just how much this was actually bothering. And seeing as he could not get this girl off him by being nice, he reached down and took a hold on both of her clinging hands.

That at this very moment now was getting dangerously close to rubbing more then just his back. And before she could try anything even more seductive then pressing her breasts up against his chest.

He somehow roughly shoved each of her arms away, then hurried gave her a light yet firm push, to get some distance between them.

Which made a displeased look ran over her face. She just didn't understand why he wasn't being tempted by her seductive ways. If it had been any other man she was pretty certain that he would already be wrapped around her little finger.

Yet Athrun kept on trying to keep his distance from her, like he wasn't the least bit interested in her.

But such a thing was pretty much impossible in Meer's eyes. Ever since she had been made to look like Lacus Clyne. She had gotten kinda use to always getting her ways.

And if Athrun didn't wanted her to be his girlfriend. She just had to try even hard to get him to pay attention to her. Perhaps the naughty underwear she had brought along with her from the Plants, could do the trick and make him realize just how unbelievable gorgeous she truly was.

But as she stood there trying to come up with the best way to seduce the blue haired man in front of her.

He began talking to her in a tired tone.

"It's nice to see you too Meer! I would actually like to talk with you for a bit. But it has been quite a long and exhausting day, and I could really use a few hours of sleep, so maybe we can meet up tomorrow and talk" Athrun said, trying hard not to yawn loudly just after he had finished that sentence.

Looking at his face for a little while, Meer could easily tell how completely worn out her future boyfriend was at the moment.

And even true she was still disappointed that he didn't hug her back before, she couldn't help but feel a little sorry for him, and maybe after he had gotten a few hours of sleep he might give her the attention she desperately wanted from him.

And with that in mind she gave him a gentle yet still somewhat seductive smile. "Ok Athrun I understand. I'll see you tomorrow then. Perhaps the two of us can have breakfast together" She suggest in a sweet tone, as she leaned in and tried to hug him one more time.

Seeing what Meer was up to now.

Athrun hurried took a small step away from the pink haired girl.

Making certain that there was no way she could get a hold on him again. He seriously did not feel like getting in to another highly uncomfortable, wrestling match with the clinging pink haired girl.

And even true her expression did make it pretty clear that she was quite disappointed at the moment.

He immediately decided to just ignore her somewhat sad look. There was only one single woman in this entire world he want to be hugged so tightly by, and she was no where near this place.

"I'll talk with you later Meer" he said quietly.

Just as he turned around and walked off without giving the songster the opportunity to say or do anything else, that would surely make him feel even more uncomfortable.

Watching his back until he was completely out of sight, Meer slowly licked her lips a single time, while getting a somewhat naughty look in both of her eyes.

"Yes Athrun! You will definitely talk with me later" she said still using a slightly seductive tone, as she turned around and began making her way back to her room.

Where she had left a few very important things, she was surely going to need to carry out her little strategy to win Athrun Zala's attention. Beside she needed to drop of her Haro, so he wouldn't somehow spoil her plan.

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Meanwhile some where else. To be more exact in Rey's room.

The Chairman was sitting in one of the chairs in there with a deep thoughtful look on his face. But after a few minutes of complete silence, he slowly lifted his head and looked over at the blond haired young man.

"I see Rey, so you don't trust him?" Gilbert asked in a tone that made it clear, that he was still thinking very hard about everything Rey had just told him about Athrun Zala.

And even true the blue haired teen had proven to be quite useful up until now. There was no doubt that Rey's distrustful words about Athrun held some truth in them.

He had after all been a part of the Archangel's crew two years ago. And he also had a very close friendship to Kira Yamato.

Which was no doubt a person that both Gilbert and Rey knew had to remove from this world. That was actually one of the main reasons, why they had to make sure that Shinn was as good a pilot as possible.

That way they could make certain, that the boy was completely ready to go up against such a powerful mobile suit as the Freedom.

But that was a conversation that had to wait until later.

Right now it was much more important that they tried to figure out just how trustworthy Athrun Zala really was.

Gilbert might believe that the young Zala was pretty useful. But if he at some point in time decided to turn the Saviour's power against them. They would without a doubt have a very serious threat on their hands.

"No Gil I don't trust him at all. I seriously believe that you should have thought a bit more about it, before you permitted him to join Zaft again. He did after all run off with the Justice in the last war. And he was more then ready to use it against his own father too" the blond boy said, thinking quite hard about everything he had read about Athrun Zala in his files.

There was more then a few minor things in those.

That made Rey believe that it was a very big mistake having Athrun Zala on board the Minerva, there was no telling what the boy could do if there wasn't somebody around to keep an eye on him.

Thinking a few seconds about Rey's words the black haired man slowly reached up and rubbed his chin a few times.

"I see what you mean Rey. But try and look at it this way, we might not be able to trust him completely. But having him as a part of the Minerva's crew, we will be able to keep a close eye on him incase he might try something" Gilbert said seriously.

Just as he took a deep breath before he once more continued talking.

"And you know what they say. Keep your friends close and keep your enemies even closer" he said, still trying to decided how to best make certain that Athrun Zala would not betray them at some point in future.

Hearing a sane reason to have Athrun stay on the Minerva. Rey nodded slowly in understanding. It might not be so bad having the blue haired teen nearby.

If nothing else he was quite a good pilot.

"I get what you are saying Gil. But no matter what, I'm going to make certain that he wouldn't ever get the opportunity to stab us in the back, and if he shows signs of doing something like that. I seriously hope I have your permission to kill him?" The blond man asked.

Making sure that the Chairman knew, that he was completely serious about every single word that had just left his mouth.

And those not so friendly words was more then enough to make a deep thoughtful look appear on Gilbert's face. He knew that having Athrun as an opponent could be a very bad thing.

He had already show him more then once that he was a very powerful warrior.

And if he suddenly lost his will to obey him. It was properly best that he cease to exist, from this world.

"Ok Rey you have my permission to get rid of him. If he ever shows any signs of disloyalty. But if you do have to kill him, then try and do it in discreet way, we don't wanted to jeopardize the loyalty of anybody else. We still does have a need for Shinn Asuka. By the way how far has he gotten since the last time, I saw him fight?" Gilbert asked in a curious tone.

As the conversation continued on in a more calm manner. Which kinda made it sound a bit like the two of them hadn't just been discoursing under what circumstance they should end the life of another human being.

"I think it's going very well. It's not long since he finally manage to get over in seed mode, which I think is quite an accomplishment. And he is getting very good at using the Silhouette packs to his advantage" Rey explained. While trying to figure out if there was anything he had left out about his friend's combat abilities in the Impulse.

But as he was doing that he saw Gilbert nod a few times in understanding.

"I see. That truly is good news Rey, so tell me how long do you think it will take before he is ready to go up against the Freedom and Kira Yamato?" He asked, with a very serious look on his face.

If Shinn for some reason wasn't able to defeat the Ultimate Coordinator. It would definitely be a very hard task finding somebody else that could do it.

"It might take a while yet before he is ready for a challenge like that. But I truly do believe if he continues fighting like he is now. It will only be a matter of time before he has the requited skill to beat the Freedom" Rey said in a thoughtful tone.

That did not show any of the inner hatred Rey had towards Kira Yamato.

Not that Gilbert couldn't quite easily tell how much Rey truly disliked the Ultimate Coordinator, which wasn't really a big surprise. Seeing as Kira had been the one to kill the only other person beside himself that Rey had truly respect with all of his being.

And seeing as Gilbert knew that it was a stupid idea to make any comments about that matter. He just kept on talking like he hadn't notice the unhappy expression on Rey's face.

"Well as things a now. He will undoubtedly be able to get in at least a bit more training, seeing as we still don't have any useful information about where exactly the Archangel is hiding out" the black haired man said in a slightly annoyed tone.

Which made it pretty obvious, that he was far from pleased about not having even one clue, that could point them in the Archangel's direction.

Hearing that they still didn't know a single thing about the Archangel's whereabouts. Rey could not help but narrow his eyes just a tiny bit.

"So you didn't get anything out of asking Athrun about it huh?" He asked in a unhappy tone, while wondering a bit if the blue haired teen was hiding the truth about knowing where the Archangel was.

But before he could really give it all that much thought.

Gilbert began talking in a somewhat far away tone.

"He told me that he had no idea about where to find it. And from what I could gather from the expression he had on his face doing the conversation, he was telling me the honest truth" the black haired man said.

Thinking back to the little meeting he had with Athrun not long ago, and some of the things he had said.

The blue haired teenage might not know yet, how to located the white space ship.

But Gilbert was pretty certain that soon or later the boy would somehow be able to find and give him some very useful information about the Archangel, that could without a doubt be used to finally take down that accursed ship once and for all.

And with that in mind, he once more change the subject over on something much more cheerful.

This time asking Rey, how he was getting along with the other crew members on the Minerva.

And even true it was done with a bit of hesitation. It did not take long, before the blond teen was busy explaining to the man in front of him. How life was treating him on the grey battle ship.

To be continued.

One thing I always wondered about. When the Chairman ask Athrun about the Archangel, had he actually known where the ship was hiding out. Would he have told him back then.

What do you guys think?


	23. Chapter 23

I'm sorry guys that this took so long. But I have been kinda busy this month.

Chapter 23

It was about seven hours since the meeting with the Chairman.

And right now Athrun was laying in his bed sound asleep. But as he began slowly waking up.

It did not take him long to realize. That he was not the only person in this bed, there was somebody else in there just beside him. At first he was somewhat convinced that it was his lovely fiancée who was resting there next to him.

But when his tired brain remind him that Cagalli was no where near this place, that she was with the Archangel right now, and couldn't be laying there beside him like she loved to do.

And with that in mind his two eyes immediately flew open to take a look at whoever this strange person was. And it did not even take him a second to recognize the intruder.

He only knew two people with pink hair. And there was just no way the real Lacus would **ever **be sleeping beside him like this.

But apparently the fake one did not feel the same way. Seeing as she had at some point during the night taken the opportunity to sneak in here and crawl in to bed beside him.

So after using a few minor seconds to get over the shock at seeing Meer Campbell sleeping beside him like this. He didn't waste anytime in getting out of the bed and away from the pink haired girl.

Once up on his feet, he immediately reached down and picked up his pants, which he got in to in a hurry. After that he again looked over at the fast asleep girl.

Just seeing her peaceful sleeping expression was more then enough to make a deep angry vein ran over his forehead. All of the pink haired girl's foolish attempts to get his attention, was seriously starting to get on his nervous.

And with that in mind he took a couple of short breaths.

"Meer wake up!" He called out in a loud tone that immediately made the fake Lacus sit up straight on the bed, where she hurried took a small look around the room to figure out where exactly she was.

And when her two blue eyes made their way over to him. It did not take much time before a truly happy expression appear on her face.

But just before Athrun had the opportunity to ask what the hell she was doing in there. She let the thick cover fall away from the upper part of her body. So he could now see how little clothes she had on.

Honestly expecting that the almost see through white nightgown covering her lovely body. Would finally make Athrun realize just how utterly sexy she truly was. And that if he was interested in her, she was more then ready to accept him with open arms.

And to make completely sure that he knew what she had in mind, she slowly ran her tongue over her red lips a single time.

But even true her choice of clothes did distract Athrun for a brief moment.

He hurried shook his head a few times, before he again looked directly in to Meer's eyes, where he could easily tell by her somewhat smug look that was was expecting something to happen.

And his next words obviously shocked her a great deal. Not that he cared one bit about that right now.

"Meer get your clothes on and get out of here!" He told her in a tone that could only be described as very unfriendly. He really didn't felt like dealing anymore with all of the fake Lacus' attempts to seduce him.

So he had to get rid of her before anybody showed up and realized that she was in there.

If somebody actually figured out that she had been spending the entire night in his bed. They would without a doubt believe, that the two of them hadn't been sleeping much this night.

And there was simply no way he wanted gossip like that spread out all over the base. If Cagalli ever heard rumours like that, it would certainly take a very long time before he would be able to make it up to her again.

And with that in mind he again yelled out for Meer to hurry and get out of there.

"But Athrun, if I stay the two of us can have a lot of fun together. You do realize that the two of us are meant for each other" she said in a sweet tone, while doing her best to try and show of her slender body and her big breasts to him.

But seeing her do that just made Athrun even more determined to get rid of the pink haired girl.

"No Meer we are not meant for each other! You have to realize, that I don't have those kind of feelings for you. And that I don't like the way you keep on clinging to me every time you see me!" Athrun told her loudly.

Just as he walked over and pinked up her dress and throw it down on the bed beside her.

Hearing him say all of that to her a very, very displeased look immediately ran over her face, as she tried to figure out what she was doing wrong. Why was it that he kept on resisting all of her attempts to bring the two of them closer together.

It was not like she wasn't attractive. So there had to be something else he wasn't telling her.

And while still thinking about that she again looked over at him, doing her best not to show him her disappointment. She had seriously believed that by crawling in to bed with him, dressed like this was enough to make him fall for her.

"Do you have somebody else that you like Athrun, is there another girl somewhere that you are in-love with?" She asked in a somewhat unhappy tone.

She truly needed to know if she had a rival for his affection.

But when he heard her ask that he just got a somewhat far away look on his face, that made it completely clear for her that he was thinking very hard about somebody else right now.

But after standing there for a few seconds he slowly shook his head a few times. "That's none of your business Meer. Now hurry up and get going, the two of us have already spend way to much time together" he said in tone, that made it obvious that if she didn't get out of there now. He was going to get even more angry and upset with her.

So even true she was still looking somewhat sad about the whole thing. She slowly stood up from the bed and began getting in to her normal day clothes.

But no matter how much she tried to make Athrun feel guilty about being so impolite to her. He just turned around and waited until he was sure that she had all of her clothes back on.

"I guess that I'll be seeing you later then" she told him. Still trying to make it seemed like, she was completely crushed about him throwing her out of there.

But Athrun just lifted his hand and gave her a short wave.

Seeing him do that. She hurried turned and left the room without saying another word to him.

And even true a small part of her had hoped that he would call out after her, and ask her to stay in there with him. It did not take long, before she was slowly walking down the hall with a truly depressed look on her face.

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At the same time back in Athrun's room. The blue haired young man couldn't help but let out a big sigh of relief. As he fell back on to his bed, truly happy that he had finally manage to get rid of the pink haired girl. Even true a small part of him did feel a bit guilty for being so mean to her.

But for some reason, no matter how much he tried to show her, that he wasn't interested in her.

She kept on hanging on to him at ever given opportunity, so what in the world was he suppose to do. He surely didn't want his engagement to Cagalli ruined because a girl he badly knew had crawled in to bed with him while he was asleep.

"Damn it, I really hope she doesn't try anything like that again, one time was bad enough!" He said to himself, as he closed his eyes for a few minutes.

Doing his best to forget everything that had happened this morning. But as he was resting there, it didn't take him long to realize that even true he hadn't done a single thing with Meer.

He was still smelling a great deal of the perfume she was apparently using. And if somebody caught him smelling like that, he would surely get a great deal of very uncomfortable explaining to do.

And knowing that he hurried got back up from the bed, and made his way over to the bathroom. Once in there he immediately turned on his shower, truly hoping this was enough to get rid of the somewhat bad scent of Meer's perfume.

But as he stood there with the water running down over him. He began to wonder how in world she had manage to tiptoe in there without him noticing it.

Having been both a soldier and a bodyguard for a very long time. It wasn't like he hadn't been thoroughly trained, in sensing when something wasn't right.

Yet Meer had for some reason, been able to get both in to his room, and crawl in to bed beside him.

If she had been somebody else, that had snuck in to his room to kill him. He would most definitely be dead now.

Just the thought alone was more then enough to send a small shiver through him. Even with all that hot water falling down over him, how the heck could he have slept over something like that.

Maybe it was because he had gotten pretty use to Cagalli sneaking in to his room to sleep beside him. The first few times she had done that, he had woken up almost instantly after she had step foot in to his room.

But after a little while, her nightly visits had end up becoming a habit to him.

So now he had no trouble at all sleeping over it. Even when she was making a great deal of noise. Like that time she had accidently knocked over the small lamp that had been standing on his bedside table, which had far from been enough to wake him up.

It was only when she had began softly kissing and licking his neck, that he had finally returned from dreamworld.

But before he could really get in to the thoughts about one of his and Cagalli's more passionate and down right sweaty nights. He quickly shook his head a few times to get his wandering mind over on something else.

"I really miss her a lot right now" he quietly mumbled to himself.

Just as he happy smiling face ran through his head. And without even thinking about it, he slowly began counting just how many days it had been since he had last seen his lovely fiancée.

He did however not get the opportunity to finish doing that before somebody knocked quite loudly on his door.

"Just a minute!" He hurried called out in a very loud tone. Seriously hoping that whoever was out there, wasn't Meer Campbell again, he really didn't feel like spending anymore time with that girl today.

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So while Athrun was trying his best to remove all the traces his unwanted guest had left behind.

Lunamaria and Nicol was standing just outside of his room, waiting for some kind of signal that would show them that they where welcome to enter the room.

It did however not take long before the red haired girl began running slowly out of patience.

"What do you think he is doing in there? I really don't want to stand out here all day. I haven't gotten a single thing to eat yet, so I'm hungry" Luna complained, while glaring a bit at the door. Hoping that whatever her handsome teammate was doing in there it wouldn't take too long.

But just as Nicol was about to tell her that he was sure that it wouldn't be long now Athrun was ready to let them in. The door to the room got slammed open.

So now both of them could see the Saviour piloted busy using a towel to dry his blue hair, and dressed in nothing else but a pair of pants and a T-shirt. That showed of a great deal of the hard muscles on the upper part of his body.

"Ohh it's you guys, what are you doing here so early in the morning? I thought for sure that the two of you would still be sleeping at this hour. We do have the day off you know?" He asked in a friendly tone, as he slowly turned around and walked back in to the room, still wiping the rest of the water out of his hair.

Once he got over beside the bed. He immediately throw the towel down on the floor, and picked up the red coat that belonged to his uniform.

So after quickly brushing away a few pink hairs that at some point doing the night had land on it.

He hurried pulled the coat on and looked over at his two teammates, a bit curious about why they had both chosen to leave their beds this early.

Especially when they had permutation to sleep the entire day away, he did however not have to wait all that long for some kind of reply. "Well Lunamaria and I was wondering if you wanted to have breakfast with us? We have already tried to find both Rey and Shinn to ask them to join us. But unfortunately neither of them where in their rooms" Nicol explained, while taking a brief glance around the room.

Thinking a brief moment about what his two friends was asking him. Athrun was just about to give them a reply. When suddenly out of nowhere Luna interrupted him with a completely different question.

"What is that strange smell that's in here?" She asked in a somewhat far away tone. While trying her best to figure out where exactly that weird fragrant was coming from. For some reason a small part of her found the smell oddly familiar. She just couldn't figure out when she had encounter that almost spring like scent before.

Quickly realizing that the room was still smelling a great deal of Meer's perfume.

Athrun immediately knew that he had to hurry and get the red haired girl out of there before she could figure out what the smell was.

So without wasting anytime. He reached out and got the only window in the room open, hoping that some nice fresh air would be able to reduce the perfume fragrant.

After that he hurried stepped over beside Lunamaria and took a hold on her right arm. "Well to tell you the truth I'm actually quite hungry myself, so lets hurry up and get out of here!" He said trying to sound very excited about the whole thing.

And without giving them the possibility to say anything back. He pulled Lunamaria along with him out of the chamber.

With Nicol following closely behind them with a deeply confused expression on his face. He really didn't understand why Athrun was in such a big hurry to get out of that room. It was almost like he had been trying to hide something.

But no matter how hard Nicol thought about it. He just couldn't figure out why exactly Athrun had been so utterly keen on, getting both Luna and him out of there in such a great haste. What was it with that peculiar smell that almost send his normally calm friend in to a small panic. And why was it that Lunamaria found that weird smell familiar.

This entire matter was just so strange.

And even true Nicol honestly wanted to ask his friend about the smell. He could easily tell by Athrun's expression that he really didn't want to talk about it. Especially now that he had finally succeed in getting Lunamaria's attention over on something else. Right now both of them where busy discussing the ZAKU and GOUF mobile suit. And which one was the most powerful.

Something Lunamaria was apparently very eager to give her opinion on, seeing as she herself was the pilot of a ZAKU.

And just by hearing the tone of voice she was using while talking about her mobile suit. Made it very clear that she was very, very proud of being the pilot of her red ZAKU Warrior.

"I'm telling you Athrun that big cannon can blow pretty much everything apart. It really is the much cool weapon ever!" She said in a loud tone, while crossing both of her arms over her chest, giving both of the boys a look, that clearly told them that they could just try and disagree with her. She was more then ready to a argue back if they had something insulting to say about her mobile suit.

And as much as Nicol quite frankly wanted to stay out of this discussion. He just couldn't stop himself from sharing his opinion, about Zaft's new national mobile suit with his two friends.

"Well I do think that the ZAKU is an ok machine. But I find it a bit annoying that it can't fly without the help of a Guul. And I also think it could use a few more close combat weapons!" Nicol said, thinking back to how utterly limited he had found the ZAKU the few times he had actually tried piloting such a machine.

It was only when he had been assigned one of the very first GOUFs that had been made. That he honestly felt like he could fight just as well as he had done with the Blitz two years ago.

The GOUF might not have Mirage Colloid but it was still quite fast and very maneuvrable.

And that type of mobile suit truly did suited his fighting style, much better then the ZAKU.

He did however not get long to think about that before Lunamaria interrupted his thoughts quite loudly.

"Hmm you should really consider taking a spin around the base in a ZAKU Nicol. Then you would surely realize that if you had just the right Wizard pack equipped, then you would no doubt be able to beat almost anything!" the girl explained. While thinking about how many advantage there was in having a mobile suit that could do that.

But it didn't take long before she once more began talking in the same wise tone as before.

"And if you are really that hung up on having a bunch of close combat weapons Nicol! Then you could always use the Slash Wizard pack!" The female ZAKU pilot said, while looking directly in to Nicol's two brown eyes.

Waiting impatiently to hear what he now had to say about the ZAKU mobile suit.

"I do agree with you Luna that the ZAKU is very effective with all of it's Wizard packs. But it still can't fly on it's own down here in the atmosphere, and that's quite frankly one of the ZAKU's main weakness" Nicol said. Somewhat hoping that these words wouldn't lead to another argument with the girl.

For some reason the two of them had been fighting a lot these last few days. And he seriously didn't feel like getting in to yet another big loud discussion, with the red haired girl, about who was right and who was wrong.

But fortunately to his relief the only thing Lunamaria did, when she heard those words was get a slightly thoughtful look on her face, as she slowly turned her attention over to the last person there. That for the last couple of minutes had been pretty quiet.

"And what about you Athrun, which do you think that is the strongest the ZAKU or the GOUF?" She asked in a slightly curious tone. While at the same time giving him a small yet cute smile that she somehow hope was enough to get him to say ZAKU.

But he apparently didn't even notice her cute expression.

He just took a glance up at the ceiling, obviously think hard what she had just asked him. Yet before neither Nicol or Lunamaria could lose their patient waiting for a reply of some kind.

Athrun looked away from the ceiling and back over at them.

"I don't really know which one of them is the most powerful. I have never tried piloting a GOUF!" He said in a far away voice. Thinking back to how well Nicol had fought using such a machine.

It really had been quite impressive some of the things Nicol could pull of with his GOUF.

Yet before he could really start thinking about that. He got his thoughts over to the other mobile suit they had been asking him about. "And the few times I have been trying out a ZAKU it didn't really go all that well. The first time the machine could badly walk in a straight line, which wasn't really all that fun seeing as I was going up against the Gaia. And the second time I pretty much fell half way through the atmosphere, before Shinn caught me" the blue haired teen said. Thinking about how bad an experience that had been.

And with that in mind, he again looked back over on the two other mobile suit pilots.

Where he immediately noticing the somewhat curious expression they had on their faces. Which made it pretty obvious that both of them wanted an answer soon.

"Well if I really have to tell you guys the truth. I think that if I had to use one of those mobile suits, I would honestly choose the GOUF. I too do like the idea of being able to fly down in the atmosphere" Athrun said in a voice.

Which made it very clear for both Luna and Nicol that he was taking this whole conversation quite serious. And that he really had meant every word he had just said.

But even true Luna wasn't all that happy about him choosing the GOUF. She found herself nodding slowly in understanding. But before either of her or Nicol had the opportunity to say anything back about Athrun's choice of mass-produced mobile suit.

He once more began talking, this time using a less serious tone then before. "But seeing as I have the Saviour. I really don't have to worry about which one of them to choose. That gundam has more then enough weapons, and it's quite handy when engaged in aerial combat" he said, while thinking about how useful the Saviour's high speed had been, that one time he had been facing of against the Chaos gundam.

Thinking a bit about his response. Lunamaria got a small yet unhappy frown on her forehead. "Ok I do get why you prefer a gundam, over a mass-produced mobile suit. But unfortunately some of us here are not so lucky being assigned to such a machine!" The girl said in a cranky voice. While at the same time wondering slightly how things would have turn out, had she been the one who had been chosen to pilot either the Saviour or the Impulse.

She however not get much time to really dream about what she could accomplish in one of those mobile suits, when suddenly Nicol let out a small coughing sound.

And just as she turned her attention over at him. He began talking in a thoughtful tone.

"I do understand why you find the idea of piloting a gundam appealing Lunamaria. But just remember that being the pilot of such a machine doesn't mean you can accomplish and handle everything. There is just so many things I truly wish I could have done differently while piloting the Blitz" Nicol said quietly.

Just as he slowly shook away those awful pictures of the Calamity killing Mayura almost directly in front of him.

Wondering a second or two what in the world he was talking about. Lunamaria was just about to ask him about it. When he quickly shook his head a few times, and again looked back at them.

"Let's hurry up and get down to the cafeteria, I'm hungry" he said then continued onward without saying anything else to them. He really did not feel like talking about the past right now.

Seeing her friend disappear so quickly down the hall. Lunamaria got a slightly worried look in both of her eyes, as she turned and looked over at Athrun.

"Do you have any idea about what he was just talking about?" She asked concerned, while taking another glance in that direction Nicol had disappeared in, for some reason it was always bothering her, when he got that depressed look on his face.

Slowly going over the female pilot's question. Athrun too got a slightly sad look on his face too.

"I might Luna. But it's not really my place to tell you, maybe someday in the future, he will perhaps be ready to talk with you about it" Athrun said in a somewhat sad tone.

Just as he slowly reach up to remove some of his blue hair. That was at this very moment was covering up both of his eyes.

Hearing Athrun say that.

Lunamaria felt even more curious about the matter. But seeing how much sadness this subject brought her two friends, she quietly decided to keep her mouth shut and not to ask anymore about it, before she was absolutely certain that Nicol, was completely ready to tell her about whatever it was that made both him and Athrun feel so depressed.

And with that in mind she once more turned her attention over towards the only other person there. "Let's get moving too Athrun. I'm pretty sure that Nicol is already down in the cafeteria, just waiting for the two of us to show up" she said, while watching Athrun nod a single time in agreement.

So with that decision made the two of them turned. And began walking slowly down the hall, without saying another word to each other.

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Meanwhile quite far away from the giant building the Minerva's pilots had been spending the night in.

Shinn was walking slowly around town, with an lolly stick in his mouth. It had been a little while since he had finished of the ice lolly. But for some strange reason he kinda liked chewing on the small piece of wood.

But even while he was busy doing that, he still had quite a big smile on his face. Seeing as it wasn't long since he had left a video game arcade, where he had shown a bunch of high school jerks how one was really suppose to play a racing game.

The leader of them had actually ended up getting very hostile when he had broken his high score in the game. And if it hadn't been for the own of the small arcade.

Shinn was pretty sure that he would be in the middle of a fist fight against the three morons. Yet once the old man who apparently own the place had told them if they began fighting in there, they would never be allowed to enter the arcade again.

And a threat like that was more then enough to make them stop provoking him.

So after making sure that they where once again playing the racing game, trying to regain the top spot on the machine. Shinn had slowly left the arcade making extra sure that those guys wasn't following him.

He really didn't feel like fighting with a bunch civilians. Seeing as that would most like earn him quite a big scolding from the captain. And properly a few others of the Minerva's high ups'

And he seriously didn't feel like dealing with that today.

He would much rather have the possibility to go outside and get some fresh air, then being forced to stay on board the Minerva until it was time for them to leave this place.

Yet as he continued onward quite far away in his own thoughts, he arrived at the very top of a big hill that showed a truly unbelievable view of the ocean, and the city he had just left not long ago.

He could even see the Minerva from all the way up here. Not that he watched the ship for long, it wasn't like this was the very first time he had ever laid eyes on the grey space ship.

So once he again was looking out over the ocean, the smile on his face grew a little bigger.

"I really like this place. If I ever had to find somewhere down here to live, this would definitely be in the top ten of my choices!" He said, while again letting his eyes ran over the view. Still busy making a few minor bite marks in the small lolly stick, that had been dangling in his mouth all of this time.

But as he stood there doing that. He suddenly noticed a blond angle like girl, dancing softly around not all that far away from him. "Wow she is cute! I wonder what's making her so happy?" He quietly asked himself. Still watching as the beautiful blond haired girl began slowly spinning around herself, while at the same time humming and singing in a soft tone.

"Why the heck can't there be a few girls like her on the Minerva? She seems so gentle and kind, like she could never hurt another human being. Unlike Lunamaria who really does seem ready to hit me just for saying one or two wrong words to her" the boy said. Thinking back to how many lumps the red haired girl had given him the time he had known her.

But after doing that for a few seconds he decided that it wasn't really worth the effort standing around up there counting something like that. But one thing was certain it was more then a few times, he had succeed in getting Lunamaria mad at him.

Which had been very entertaining. Until she had started hitting him every time he found someway to pissed her off. And the threat of getting beaten up had kinda taken some of the fun out of the little game.

Especially since the red haired girl had quite a powerful right hook, something he had been shown more then at one occasion.

"Man we really do need a few more nice girls back on the ship" he said. While again turning his attention back towards the still dancing girl, truly enjoying the sight of her being so happy.

It did however not take long before he slowly moved his gazes away from her. If the cute looking girl somehow realized that he was actually staring at her. She might just consider him a pervert. And that surely wasn't something he wanted to be regard as.

But while he stood there taking in the clear view of the blue ocean, which could be seen so far below him, he suddenly heard a small scream.

Which got him to once more look in the direction of the blond haired girl. Only to realize that she was gone now, and seeing as there was no way she could have left without him seeing it.

There was only one single place she could have disappeared to. And that was straight down in to the ocean.

"Ahh damn it all!" He yelled loudly. Just as he took of full speed, towards the place where he knew the girl had last been. And without even giving it a second thought he jumped right of the hill and down in to the ocean. Where he could see the girl struggling hard to keep her head above the salt water.

And the sight of the way she kept on rummaging around, made it pretty clear that she didn't know a single thing about how to swim.

So once he hit the water he immediately began making his way over to her. Once close enough, he tried to wrap his arms around her, so she could somehow use him to stay above the water.

But when he did that, she began fighting and struggling even harder. It was almost like she was somehow expecting that he was there to try and pull her down under the water, so she would drown.

"Hey take it easy already!" He yelled doing his best to calm the obviously panicky girl down. But his words did not really get through to her. She kept on fighting with both him and the water. She even went so far as to tear up his skin with her long finger nails, so his blood began seeping out in to the water.

Which made him worry a bit that there might be sharks nearby.

Even true he might be a Coordinator and a soldier. He seriously didn't feel like fighting with something that deadly with his bar hands. While at the same time trying to rescue this girl.

"Oww! Please come down! I'm trying to help you, if you continued like this we are both going to die!" He yelled, as he tried his best to ignore the pain her nails and the salt water was sending up through his arms.

But unfortunately his words didn't have much effect on her. If anything she was now doing everything possible to get out of his arms and away from him.

It was almost like he had just said something, that made her feel even more afraid. And when he was really concentrating on screaming voice, he could make out that it was something about not wanting to die, and that she wanted to stay alive.

Which immediately made him realize, that this girl was totally terrified at the very thought of death.

And with that in mind he shouted out the only thing he could think of. "You are not going to die! I promise you that I will protect you! So please try and come down so we can get back to the shore!" He yelled directly in to her left ear, that just happened to be right beside his mouth.

But even true his words did somewhat have a calming effect on her.

She still didn't loosen her grip at all, which meant that each and every single one of her long sharp nails was slowly piercing them self deeper and deeper in to the skin on his right arm.

So now more and more of the damn salt which was in the ocean water, was slowly seeping in to all of the small wounds. Which was actually begin to make him feel somewhat dizzy and confused.

And he realize that if he didn't get her back on land soon, both of them might just end up drowning out here, so the only option he had now was to somehow get her to stop fighting him and get her to realize that he was actually trying to help her.

So even with her damn nails digging in to his right arm. He tighten his already secure grip on her, and once more began talking in a loud yet somewhat calm tone.

"There is no way you are going to die out here! I'll make sure of that! So will you please stop struggling. Before we end up getting seriously hurt out here!" he yelled loudly. As he tried not to show just how painful her long nails felt halfway through his arm.

He might not be that much of a genius about women. But this was honestly one of the few times he didn't get. Why exactly did their nails have to be so freaking long.

Why couldn't they realize that those thing could almost be used as weapons.

But perhaps that was the reason why they had them like that. Yet even as he was floating around there wondering about that, he slowly began paddling back towards land.

Truly happy that the girl had finally decided to calm down a bit, or perhaps she had simply tired herself out with all of her struggling. But no matter what had brought about the change in her behavior.

Now he could finally begin the hard task off bring the two of them back to the shore. That was actually quite far away now.

Which made him course slightly, while still being careful not to do anything that would frightened the girl. He wasn't entirely certain that he had enough strength left to handle another one of her panic attacks.

He too was quite exhaust both mentally and physically after all of this. It wasn't really a normal everyday occasion for him, to jump of a cliff and down in to the ocean after a girl.

So if anybody asked him, he seriously wouldn't mind getting a few hours of rest, and perhaps a couple of bandages to all of the wounds he had on his arms.

Not that he blame the girl for her scared reaction. If he had been the one to fall from such a high cliff and down in to ocean without being able to swim. He too would definitely be freaked out.

And with those thoughts in mind he took another glance down at the blond haired girl, where he immediately noticed the frightened expression that was pretty much covering her entire face.

And still feeling somewhat worried that she might freak out one more time. He began speaking to her, in the most calm tone he could muster under these circumstances.

"It wouldn't take long now before we are back on land. So please hold out a bit longer!" He explained to her. While taking a short glance over his left shoulder at the rocky shore that they where approaching in a slow speed.

But unfortunately he couldn't really paddle any faster with just one arm.

He was pretty certain that if he even tried to remove his right arm from her. Then she would once more began using him as a scratching post, which wasn't really something he felt like trying again anytime soon.

And the very thought about how painful her ten long claws had been, when they where tearing through his arm. Was pretty much all he need to tighten his grip on her, trying his very best to reassure his obviously still scared passenger that nothing was going to happen to her, while he was there.

But even as he continued the difficult task of bring the two of them back on dry land.

He kept on talking to her no matter what. So she wouldn't somehow get the idea that something wasn't right.

000000

It was about five minutes later, when Shinn was finally able to pull both himself and the girl up on the rocky beach. And once he was absolutely sure that both of them where safe.

He immediately collapsed on a small stone free sport.

Trying hard to get some much needed air down in to his lungs. But as he was laying there busy doing that, he didn't noticed that the blond girl was looking at him with a somewhat unreadable expression on her face.

And it was only when she dropped down beside him.

That he slowly opened his eyes and looked over at her, where he couldn't help but notice how incredibly pretty her purple eyes was. So after spending a few very long minutes just watching each other.

Shinn finally asked the one question he had one his mind. "Are...are you all right?" He somewhat breathlessly got out. Not doing anything to hide just how concerned he was about the completely soaked girl.

But when he saw her nod yes a single time. He couldn't stop himself from letting out a deep breath, as he told her that he was happy to hear that.

So after being silent a bit longer. The girl finally said her first words to him. "Thank you for helping me" she said pretty much in a whisper, that could easily have been missed, if there had been even one thing nearby that was making noise.

But seeing as they where completely alone there, Shinn had very little trouble hearing the cute girls words.

Which was more then enough to make him smile a bit at her.

"You are welcome, I'm just relieved that I reached you in time" he explained, while slowly sitting back up. And once he was somewhat comfortable he took a small glance down at all the scratches she had so kindly given him out in the water.

And now that he was really getting a good look at them. He could see two of her long finger nails embedded in his right arm.

Which was quite frankly somewhat painful. But still not willing to frightened the girl more then she already was, he stealthily reached over and began slowly pulling the two minor weapons out of his body.

Yet even true that seriously did hurt like hell. He kept on smiling calmly at her no matter what. "So miss, what's you name?" He asked in a sweet tone, while trying his best to hide what he was working on.

But the girl didn't really give him any kind of reply. She just sat there looking at him for a very long time. Before she slowly reached out and took a hold on his arm.

And before he could do anything to protest, she pulled out the first one of her nails. Which felt just as nice and pleasurable, as when she had put them there in the first place.

"I'm...I'm Stella..." she told him in a tone that held a great deal of hesitation.

Happy to finally know the cute girl's name. Shinn was just about to explain to her what his name was, when she began removing her other minor knife like weapon.

Which was more then enough to get him to quiet down with his introduction until she was done.

"I'm Shinn Asuka! It's...it's somewhat nice to meet you Stella. But I kinda do wish it had been under better circumstances" he said, while taking a look up at the very place he had leaped out from not that long ago.

And now that he could really see how high up it was. He knew that it was actually a bit of a miracle that none of them had ended up getting seriously hurt by their not so entertaining trip down there.

Yet one thing that would be clear, for even the most stupid person alive, was that they where trapped down here.

And as he stood there quietly growling over that. The girl began talking once more in a small tone.

"What...what are we going to do now?" She asked obviously still very worried and scared about this whole thing. But even while feeling like that she couldn't help but try and get some warm back in to her slightly cold body.

Which meant that it only took a few minor seconds before she was once more sitting on the rocky surface, slowly hugged herself tightly. Even true it was still summer and somewhat warm out here. The water had still been way to cold to swim in.

But as she was sitting there resting her head against her knees.

She couldn't help but take a small glance up at her saviour. Just as he pulled out some kind of strange looking device, which he immediately began pressing a few buttons on.

"There now that should do it, now somebody should show up to help us soon or later!" He said in a confident voice.

Just as he looked at the girl freezing girl, with a small grin on his face.

That quickly disappeared when he let out a big sneeze that could be heard far and wide. And also made him realize just how cold it really was down here. Especially after their little swim.

The girl however couldn't help but smile a bit she was happy to know that she wasn't the only one who was freezing at the moment. And she could only watch him as began collecting all the pieces of wood on the small sea shore.

"We need to get a fire going, before we both end up as two popsicles. Who the heck could ever have image that there would be so cold down here" he complained almost forgetting how easily the other person down there was to scare.

And it was only when he was about to ask her to give him a hand that he realized his mistake. So in an attempt to calm here down again, he hurried reached down and picked up a big white seashell which was laying beside him.

And before the girl had the time to freak out again, he hurried took a couple of steps back over to her where he immediately kneel down next to her.

"Try holding this up to your ear. If you do that you should be able to hear the sound of the ocean" he explained now again using a calm and friendly tone, that he truly hoped would be enough to calm her down again.

And even true she only took the seashell with a bit of hesitation, it did not take much time before she was holding it up to her ear, clearly very interested in the sounds that was coming out of the seashell.

Seeing her listening so intently to the shell. Shinn just couldn't stop himself from smiling a bit. As he throw a few pieces of wood down on the exact sport he had been resting on not long ago.

"Can you hear anything?" He kindly asked, while searching around for anything else that could burn. Not that a almost completely insulated beach was the most logical place to find stuff like that.

It did however not take him long before he was busy digging out small wood piece that was sticking out of the ground, being somewhat cautious about throwing the sand around to much. He seriously didn't feel like getting something like that in to all of his minor wounds, that would most likely make them hurt even more then they already did.

Hearing him ask her that. It took Stella a few minutes to get her attention away from all of the sounds, that could be heard inside the seashell.

"Yes it's sounds so pretty. I never knew one could hear the ocean like this" she told him, while looking the white seashell over with a wondering expression on her face. That showed quite clear, that she was very curious about where exactly the sea like sounds was coming from. And it did not take long, before she once more had the seashell back up beside her ear.

Still looking at her Shinn slowly blinked a few times, honestly a bit surprise that she didn't know anything about being able to hear the ocean in a seashell. In his eyes it was pretty much commented knowledge. It was those kinds of thing that once father would show one, the very first time the family went to the beach.

Yet this girl knew nothing about it.

Which honestly made Shinn wonder if she had stayed inside most of her life. And had only been let out a few days ago, yet before he could really give it all that much thought.

Stella apparently noticed that he was staring at her. "Do you want to listen too?" She asked, while holding the big seashell out towards him.

And even true he was still trying to figure out how in the world somebody could have missed such a simple experience in once childhood. He slowly reached out and took the seashell away from her, and brought it up to his ear.

Where he stood quietly listening to it for a few seconds, while at the same time watching the pretty girl.

He just couldn't figure her out, for some reason she seemed so alone and insulated in so many ways. Like she been living on the street ever since she had first learned how to walk.

And just thinking about how many terrible things this cute girl had most likely experienced, was more then enough for him to wanting to protect her.

And with those thoughts racing through his head, he again gave her the seashell. "You are right it really does sound nice. Now please wait here, until I find a few more things that we can burn" he said in a gentle tone.

Just as he turned around and began making his way over to a good thick board that seemed like it would burn quite well.

Not really saying anything. Stella just sat quietly watching her companion with a thoughtful look on her face.

It had been a very long time since anybody she had just meet had been this nice to her.

The only other person she could remember that had ever done that, was Neo. He always treat her like she was truly something special. Which was one of the reason why she liked the mask man so much.

And now that she was really thinking about it, this Shinn guy did remind her quite a bit about Neo. Which made her realize, that it would truly be nice having a person like this on their team.

She might consider both Sting and Auel like the two older brothers she had never had. But from time to time she couldn't help but find the two of them annoying.

Especially Auel had the tendency to say something that would make her her feel so frightened. That the only thing she could think about, was running away and find a secure place where nobody could find her.

Yet other times he was very protective of her. Especially when newer crew members was trying to flirt with her. She really didn't like that at all.

And she was quite happy that Auel was always ready to break a bone or two on whatever guy that was trying to get close to her. Mostly just hearing that they where apart of Phantom Pain, was enough to frightened most people off.

Yet a few of them was brave enough to continue talking to her. Even after gaining the knowledge of which team she belonged to.

And it was at times like those that Auel truly showed that he cared about her in his own ways. He was after all quite good at getting the more dense rookie soldiers away from her.

He had even taken it so far as to pull out his gun on one of her more serious admires. Yet that had only work for a short while, the next time that stupid pilot had attempted to flirt with her.

Auel had not been nearly as kind. He had given the womanizer a nice looking blue eye. Then pulled the bad excuse of a soldier up on the John Paul Jones' deck, and thrown him straight over the side of the enormous warship.

After that neither him or anybody else went anywhere near her. Pretty much the entire crew on the Spengler class knew that flirting with her, was quite an easy way to get a few nice looking bruises.

But before she could get much time to think anymore about her two team mates. Her new friend got back over next to her, where he immediately placed a great deal somewhat dry wood beside her.

"Just hold out a bit longer. It shouldn't take me much time getting a nice little fire going!" He told her in a determined tone, while pulling a nice looking silver lighter out of his pocket.

And after just standing there a few seconds looking at the Zaft logo pattern that was engrave in it.

He slowly bend down, and tried to light a small piece of old paper on fire. But much to his irritation, the zippo lighter just badly gave of a small spark.

Not nearly enough to actually get the paper to burn. Yet that did not stop him from trying one more time. He was completely determined to get a fire going on matter what, even if he had to rub two sticks together.

"Damn it, why wouldn't you work you small piece of junk" he muttered to himself. Being careful not to show Stella just how thin his patient was getting.

He realized that if he began cursing out loud. He might just end up scaring her again.

And he wasn't entirely sure, that the seashell trick would work one more time. And there wasn't much else down there, that could somehow be used to make her forget how frightened she was.

But after nearly five whole minutes, he finally succeed in getting the lighter to work again, which meant that it did not take much time, before the two of them could at long last get some warm back in to their almost completely chill bodies.

Yet as they where sitting there. Stella slowly reached down and pulled her long blue dress up over her head, so now the only thing she was dressed in was a white bra and pair of panties.

A bit surprised by her sudden actions. Shinn hurried turned his gaze away from her, doing everything not to show her the deep blush he now had on his face.

But even true he wasn't directly looking at her.

He was still having quite a tough time keeping his two wide spread eyes away from her.

There was no denying that she had been incredibly beautiful in that blue dress. Yet now she almost looked like some kind of angel, that had descend down to earth not long ago.

"What...what...are you doing Stella...?" He asked taking a single glance away from the ocean and over at her.

Yet just the sight of her cute little belly button. Was pretty much all he need to once again turn his attention back out towards enormous sea, which both of them had almost drown in, only a half hour ago.

But even true he wasn't looking at her anymore. It was a somewhat hard task for him to forget what he had just seen.

He wasn't really use to be around a girls, that was dressed in nothing else, other then her underwear.

So he didn't have the slightest idea about how he was suppose to react in this kind of situation.

And he was even more afraid of getting caught watching her now, then he was before when he had first seen her dance around up on the cliff. Yet her next words did calm him down a tiny bit.

"When one is soaked and cold, the best thing to do is get out of your wet clothes, to warm up" she said, while holding her hands out towards the fire. For some reason both of her hands was freezing a lot right now, and she knew that by doing this it wouldn't take nearly as long to get them warmed back up again.

But as she slowly began rubbing her hands together. She realized that she was getting quite hungry and thirst.

Yet a single glance around the beach made it clear that there was nothing around, that could help with that little problem. Unless one actually felt like taking a small sip of the sea water.

And there was certainly no way. She was desperate enough to get something like that, down in to her mostly empty belly.

So with a somewhat disappointeded look in her eyes. She once more turned her slightly unfocused gaze back at their orange glowing bonfire.

Truly enjoying how warm it was making her feel. She wasn't nearly as chilly now, as when her new dear friend, had first brought her up on the insulated rocky beach.

And as she continued sitting there hugging her own legs. She again moved her eyes away from the fire and over at Shinn. Where she almost immediately noticed that he was shaking a lot right now, which kinda made her wonder why he wasn't getting out of his wet clothes to.

But just as she was about to say something about it to him. A big bright light suddenly shined out over the beach.

"Juhuu Shiiiinnnnnn! Wheerrrrreee areeee yoooooouuuuuu!" A very, very loud voice sang out all over the place. Making extra certain, that everybody close by could hear it clearly.

And even true Shinn couldn't help but roll his eyes a single time at Heine's strange way of asking if he was in there.

He was still quite happy that one of his comrades had finally showed up to help them. It was just so damn cold sitting around down here in all of this wet clothes, and his stomach had told him more then a few times that he was hungry.

So after taking one small look over at the truly beautiful girl he had spend the last hour with. He slowly got back up on his feet.

"We are right over here Heine! Hurry up will you, it's kinda cold out here!" Shinn yelled loudly just as the boats projector was turned over at them. Which made both Shinn and Stella cover up their eyes, that stupid thing was almost blinding.

Yet before the Impulse pilot could complain about it. The power of the light got dim down so much, that it didn't hurt any longer.

And just as the two of them again looked out at the boat. They again heard the same voice as before talk in a very loud tone.

"Yo Shinn good to see you. By the way if you don't mind me saying so, you really do find the most bizarre places to hang out. Why couldn't you just have used a street corner or something like that when picking up girls? Did you really have to crawl all the way down here. When you can't get up again?" Heine asked with a big grin on his face.

Just as he turned his eyes over at the lightly dressed girl.

"But I most say that you choice in company ain't bad. Where in the world did you meet a babe like her?" He asked. Just as the boat finally got so close to the beach that both Shinn and Stella could get on board.

Once up there.

Heine immediately handed both of them a nice thick looking blanket, telling them to go sit down beside each other. That way it would be much easy for them to regain their body heat.

And once they where somewhat comfortable the small boat slowly turned around, and took off in the same direction it had just appeared from.

"Now then, do one of you mind telling me how in the world you two end up on that beach?" The orange haired man asked in a kind tone. While slowly looking a few times between them.

Yet one look at the girl made it pretty obvious that she wasn't in the mood to talk right now. She was far too busy studying a nice looking seashell she had with her on to the boat.

So knowing that she wasn't going to give him any kind of response. He turned his attention over on the pilot of the Impulse.

That was watching him with a displeased look on his face. That was more then enough to tell him, that his babe comment about the cute blond haired girl, wasn't really appreciated.

Smiling a bit about that, Heine quickly realized that Shinn was most likely developing a crush on this girl.

So not wanting to anger his friend any further then he already had. He decide that it was properly best not to say anything else about, how cute and pretty this quiet girl truly was.

"Will you stop glaring at me like that already? And tell me how you two ended up taking a vacation, at such an out of place location? That beach isn't really the most easy place to get to" he said.

Hearing his fellow piloted ask him that. Shinn immediately snapped back out of his somewhat unhappy thoughts.

"Well if it's not to much trouble Heine, do you mind giving Stella and me something to drink first? I can't even remember the last time I was this thirst. And I'm pretty sure that Stella feels the same way!" The dark haired boy said, while taking a glance over at the girl that was sitting beside him, where he saw her nod a single time in agreement.

Just as she slowly moved over and rested head against Shinn's left shoulder, not doing anything to hide how tired she was right now. Yet before she had enough time to actually fall asleep.

The orange haired guy she had meet only a few minutes ago, handed her a bottle of water, which she immediately opened and hurried pour about half of it's contents down in to her mouth.

"Thank you" she mumbled in quiet tone, while taking another sip of the nice cold liquid. Truly enjoying how nice it felt, as it was making it's way through her dry up throat.

"You are welcome. Now then seeing as you are both done satisfied your thirst. Who of you wants the honour, of telling me about your little adventure?" Heine asked kindly. As he sat down directly in front of them, where he looked a few times between the two still somewhat frozen teenagers.

Yet one look at them made it pretty obvious. That their blankets was helping them slowly regain their normal body temperature.

And as Heine was sitting there waiting for an explanation.

Shinn took a small glance over at Stella, where he immediately realized that she had drifted off to sleep resting against him. And with everything the two of them had been through, he quickly decided that it was best not to disturb her.

If there was anybody in this world that truly deserve to get some rest. It was certainly her.

And with that in mind. He let out a tired breath, as he began telling his friend about the circumstances that had made Stella and him end up down on the beach.

To be continued.


	24. Chapter 24

Chapter 24

It was a bit over an hour later.

When Shinn and Stella was sitting beside each other in a military jeep. Looking around for anything that could help them get Stella safely back home.

Yet seeing as it was getting quite dark outside. The blond girl was having some trouble recognizing exactly where she was, and what road she had taken to end up down by the cliff.

It wasn't like she was paying all that much attention to her surroundings when she was caught up dancing around.

"So little miss, do you have any idea about where we should go from here?" Heine asked in a kind tone, as he stopped the car by the side of the road, which meant that they now had a somewhat clear view of the very ocean the two teenagers had fallen in not long ago.

Yet after looking around a bit the girl slowly shook her head a few times. She just couldn't recall how she gotten down there in the first place.

But that wasn't the only thing that kept her from telling the orange haired man what he wanted to know. She had realized not long ago, that this guy was seriously trying to help her get home.

Yet a small part of her couldn't help but be a bit afraid of him. He was after all a dressed in a Zaft red uniform, which could only mean that he was one of those very people she had almost been raised to fight.

And her mind kept on yelling and screaming at her not to tell this guy anything. He might just be trying to get some kind of information out of her.

But before she could think all that much about, how she truly disliked the orange haired man in the front seat. The sweet person that was sitting beside her began talking to her in a gentle tone.

"It's going to be all right Stella. I'm absolutely certain that we can find some way to get you back home, so would you please try and take one more look around. That way you might just remember which direction you came from!" Shinn said.

Just before he slowly reach over and wrapped his fingers around her hand. Which he gave a small gentle squeeze.

Blinking a few times at his words, Stella slowly moved both of her eyes away from his smiling face and out at the area around them, trying hard to figure out how she got down on this cliff in the first places.

"I really don't know, everything looked so different when the sun is up" She said in a tone that made it obvious for the two Zaft soldiers that she was feeling a little guilty about not being able to remember.

Looking at her for a bit. Shinn got a somewhat thoughtful expression on his face, as he tried to come up with another idea, that would help bring Stella back to where she belonged.

But before he could think all that much about it. They all suddenly heard two male voices arguing quite loudly not that far away from their location. "She better be down here! I seriously don't want to waste an entire evening searching for her, there is a TV show on I really want to watch!" One of them said, in a tone that made it clear that wandering around down here was not something he wanted to do.

Yet the next voices sounded much more calm and down to earth. "I don't remember asking you to follow me down here Auel. You can go back if you really don't want to help, but you do realize that if we can't find her, then Neo will surely be mad at us" Sting said, while taking a glance back at his sulking team mate.

He just didn't get why the heck, Auel had volunteer to go with him down there to look for Stella, when all he had been doing since the two of them had left the house was complain.

Yet one glance at the Abyss pilot's face, made it completely clear that even with all of the complaining he was doing right now. He was still very concerned about their female team mate.

"Well if I didn't go with you down here, you might end up getting lost too. Then I had to search for both of you fools be myself, which would be an even bigger pain in the ass!" Auel grumble unhappily.

As he quickly walked past his green haired friend, letting both of his narrowed eyes run slowly over the evening scenery, hoping to somehow spot the person the two of them where down here to look for.

"Hey Sting, isn't that a Zaft military car down there?" The blue haired boy asked. Now with an even more displeased expression on his face, as he slowly reach up in to his jacket, to make sure that his gun was where it was suppose to be.

The chance of having to fight the Zaft bastards down there was quite minor. But he seriously wouldn't mind, having something to wend out a bit of his frustration on.

Looking a few seconds at the enemy vehicle. Sting once more turned his attention towards his friend. Where he could easily tell, that Auel was just about ready to race full speed down there, to massacre whoever was inside the green car.

And knowing that it was quite a bad idea for them to start stirring up some kind of trouble now.

Sting slowly reached over and gave Auel's arm a firm push. That was enough to get him to stop fooling around with the gun.

There might not be anybody else nearby. But if somebody was saw what Auel was doing, they might just be able to figure out what he was playing around with. And if something like that where to happen. It would no doubt lead to a lot of unnecessarily trouble, that could easily have been avoided.

"You are right Auel, that really is a Zaft jeep. I wonder what the heck they are doing all the way out here" he said in a thoughtful tone.

Just as he once more looked down at the military vehicle. Trying hard to figure out what in the world that could have made the few Zaft soldiers in that car drive all the way out here.

It wasn't like there was much for them to do at such a desolated place.

Yet before Sting had enough time to come up with some answer to his own question. The person beside him began talking in a somewhat discontented tone that did next to nothing to hide, how much hatred Auel had towards the Zaft soldiers down in the jeep.

"Do you think those bastards, know anything about Stella?" Auel asked, while glaring hatefully at the mostly green car.

Hastily going over that question in his mind. It didn't take long, before a small wicked smile ran over Sting's face. As he again looked back at his blue haired comrade that by now was just standing there waiting to hear what he had to say.

"Why don't we just go down there and ask them. It's not like they actually knows that we are the once inside the Chaos and Abyss" the green haired man said.

Looking a bit at the older teenager Auel couldn't help but roll both of his eyes a single time.

If somebody asked him, and he had to give a honest reply, he would much rather just use the Zaft morons in the jeep as living target practice. That would definitely be much more entertaining then just talking with them.

"I would actually prefer to just kill them. But I guess we can't always get what we want" he said, still sounding somewhat unhappy about not being able to spill some blood tonight.

Not bothering taking the necessary time, to give Auel a reply. The Chaos pilot began making his way down to the the Zaft vehicle, with Auel following closely behind him. Yet they hadn't gotten all that far before both of them saw a orange haired man come out of the car.

And just the sight of the red uniform he had on, was enough to make both of them tense up a bit.

"We can still change our mind about killing them" Auel whispered in a small tone. While looking the enemy soldier over. And just one look at him was pretty much all he needed, to tell that this guy wasn't really prepared to fight for his life right now.

And that could only mean, that he would definitely be an easy target to take out.

Yet when Sting told him to shut the hell up. He immediately decided not to mention anything else about killing this guy.

That however did not stop him from imagining, how amusing it would be to create a few extra breathing holes in this bastards. Unfortunately he did not get much time to really daydream about that. Before the Zaft soldier began talking to them in a loud tone.

"Evening guys! You wouldn't happen to be down here, to search for a cute blond hair girl would you?" Heine asked loudly, while giving both of the enemy mobile suit pilots a friendly smile that show no sign of hostility.

It wasn't like there was anyway for him to know, how much these two men would have prefered to just beat the crap out of him. Then have a nice friendly conversation with him.

And even true he did notice the sharp glance the two of them took of each other, when he asked about the girl. He seriously didn't think it was anything to be concerned about.

Yet when none of them gave him any kind of reply. He did get a tiny bit suspicious. It wasn't like it was a truly difficult question he had asked them. And just as he was about to repeat what he had just said.

The green haired man took a single step over towards him.

"Yes that's correct! She should have been back home a long time ago. So we decided to go out and look for her, we where getting quite worried about her. And seeing as you know what she looks like, would you please be so kind and tell us where you saw her last?" Sting asked, sounding even more friendly and kind then the Zaft soldier.

Giving each of them a big smile. Heine turned and looked back over at the jeep.

"She is not really that far away, she is sitting together with one of my comrade in the back seat of my car!" He said in a loud tone. Not noticing the murderous glare the blue haired teen was giving him, now that his back was turned.

But when he once more turned his attention back towards them, the glare was immediately replaced by a small smile.

And before Heine had enough time, to figure out if he had just been imagining the hateful glare. The green haired one brought the silence to an end.

"And what exactly is she doing inside a Zaft military car?" He asked calmly. Trying his best to figure out what in the world that could have brought Stella in such close contact with some of those people they had almost sworn to destroy no matter the cost.

Yet seeing as fighting with this guy now, would increase the possibility of the blond girl getting hurt.

Sting made sure to stay calm.

There really was no telling, what could happen if they tried anything against this guy. Now that he had the chance to really look at him, he could easily tell that this guy was a member of FAITH.

Which meant that he was properly even more dangerous then he and Auel had first believed. Yet before Sting had enough time to really give it some thought, the Zaft red's friendly voice suddenly interrupted his deep thoughts.

"Well I don't know the whole story myself. But it would seem like your blond friend fell of the cliff over there, and my friend jumped in to save her!" Heine explained.

Yet before either Sting or Auel had enough time to start getting worrying about their team mate. The left car door suddenly flew open, and out came an exhaust looking dark haired boy that looked ready to collapse at any minute now.

And seeing just how easy a target this Zaft bastard was, almost made Auel reach for his gun one more time. The only reason why he didn't succeed in getting out the weapon, was because Sting hurried moved back and stepped quite hard on his right foot.

"Ouch damn it Sting! Watch where you are going!" He yelled out completely forgetting, how close he had been to start fighting with the two enemy soldiers.

It was just about that time, that the younger kid helped a well known blond haired girl out of the car. And just one look at her, was enough for both of them to tell that she was even more worn out, then the boy assisting her was.

And before Auel could ask in his own colourful way what the heck had happened to her. Sting slowly made his way over to the dark haired teen, where he looked at him for a few seconds until he slowly lift his hand.

"Both Auel and I would like very much to thank you for helping our step-sister" he said in a kind tone, that showed no trace of hostility.

Looking a bit at the green haired man in front of him. Shinn couldn't help but smile back, as he reached out and took his hand. "I was just doing what everybody else would have done. I'm just so relieved that I was there to help her" he said. Thinking about what could have become of Stella, had he not been there to pull her out of the ocean.

Taking a brief glance away from the boy and over at the cliff. The Chaos pilot could easily tell, that not everybody would have been brave enough to take the risk of jumping out from such a high place.

There was just no telling how deep the water below them really was. So one could without a doubt get seriously hurt by falling down from up here.

"Well from what I understand you where the only person nearby that could really do anything to save her. And by doing that you did something I am eternally grateful for, and even true I would honestly like to talk a bit more with you. I do believe that it would be best that we get Stella home in a hurry so she can get some rest!" He said, while taking a glance over at the blond girl. Who was resting her head peacefully against the dark haired kid's shoulder.

Not able to keep himself from feeling a tiny bit sad. Shinn turned and took a glance down at the tired girl. He truthfully wanted to spend some more time with the cute girl.

But there was no way he could argue against the logic, in what the older boy had just said. He knew that it would be a very good idea, to get Stella in to a bed as quickly as possible.

If they didn't do that. There was a possibility that she might just past out from exhaustion.

So after studying her face a bit longer. He gently pulled her in a small embrace, that would have looked very cute to most people.

But seeing as both Sting and Auel saw the dark haired boy as a enemy. They just couldn't stop themselves, from getting a deeply displeased look in their eyes.

And even true Heine did notice both of them doing that. He just figured it was because they where each feeling very protective of their sister. Especially whenever a boy was trying to get close to her.

Yet as the two of them where busy sulking by themselves. Shinn whispered a few soft words in to Stella's ear.

"Please take care of yourself Stella. Maybe someday the two of us will meet again" he said in a somewhat hopeful tone.

Just as he slowly moved away from the hug, and carefully hand her over to her older brother, which he told to wait until he got something from the car that he wanted to give to her.

And without saying another word. He hurried turned around and made his way over to the jeep, where he reached in and picked up the white seashell, he had given to Stella down on the beach.

But seeing as she was now fast asleep in her older brother's arms. He walked over to the quiet blue haired boy, that up until now hadn't said a single thing to him.

"Could you please give this to her once she wakes up? She seemed to like it a lot, when the two of us was trapped down on that beach" Shinn explained, while hanging the seashell over to the other boy. That just stood there glaring at him like there was no day tomorrow.

Yet finally after just standing there for a long time without doing anything.

The blue haired man slowly reached out, and almost violently pulled the big seashell out of his hand. Telling him that he would make sure, that she got it once they got back home.

Feeling somewhat unsure if it was really a good idea for him to trust the blue haired guy. For some unknown reason he seemed to despise him a lot, without even having any real reason for it. But even true Shinn wasn't entirely sure that he liked the idea of letting this cranky fellow run around with something so important to both Stella and him.

He realized somewhat unhappily. That this was properly the only way he would ever be able to give Stella the seashell.

And he honestly wanted her to have it no matter what.

So after mumbling out a small thank you. He once more turned his attention over on the still fast asleep girl, that truly looked like she was having quite a nice dream at the moment.

Even with everything the two of them had been through today. Unfortunately he did not get long to watch her. Before the green haired man, began talking to him in a friendly yet somewhat creepy tone.

"Well it truly was a pleasure to meet you two! I kinda wish we could stay and get to know each other a little better. But each of you look as good as dead, you both really should hurry home and get a good long nap, you never know when it's going to be the last one!" He said, smiling a bit at the two Zaft soldiers.

Before he turned around and walked off, without giving Shinn or Heine the opportunity to say anything back.

Yet the blue haired kid stayed behind to glare at them a bit longer. And it was only when the older teen told him to hurry up. That he rushed off after his friend, with both Zaft soldiers watching them quietly for a few minutes.

"Those two where kinda strange. It was almost like they where just waiting for the right opportunity to attack us!" Heine said. As he continued watching the two men until he was sure, that they where was completely out of sight.

Taking a brief glance away from the direction, the two somewhat hostile males and the sweet girl had disappeared in.

Shinn could not help but agree with what Heine had just said. Especially the blue haired one, had seemed like he was just waiting for the right excuse to begin making some kind of trouble.

And when Shinn had handed the seashell over to him. It was almost like he had been ready to punch him right then and there.

"Yeah you are right Heine, those guys where a bit weird. But perhaps they are some of those people, who despise Zaft and Coordinators" Shinn said quietly. Feeling a bit sad, that there was still people like that in this world.

If that foolish hatred didn't existed. This war properly wouldn't have broken out in the first places.

Yet he knew better then most, that wishing for something to change wasn't enough to make it happen. And that was one of the reasons why he was so determined to help the Chairman put an end to this war, before even more people could lose their loved once.

And as he was standing there thinking about that.

He didn't notice, that Heine was now watching him with a thoughtful look in both of his eyes. "I'm not really sure that was the reason for why they hated us!" He said now with a mischievous grin on his face.

"I think it was more because they did not like the idea of you being alone with their dear little sister. But who the heck could blame them, from what I saw you really did get a good look at her, you lucky bastard!" The orange haired man said.

As he gave Shinn a hard slap on his back. Then turned away and began making his way back to the car, fully aware of the angry glare Shinn was now sending him.

But once he got over to the car he turned and looked back at Shinn. "Are you planing to spend the entire night out here, I'm quite tired over here. I jumped in to the ocean to save a truly lovely looking girl. And then I was trapped down on the beach with her for God knows how long!" Heine yelled, while opening the door to the car and sat down in front of the steering wheel.

Hearing him sat that Shinn couldn't help but smile a bit as he followed the other Zaft mobile suit piloted over to the car. Where he immediately got in next to his friend, that still had that big grin on his face.

"Not to ruin your parade or anything Heine. But I was the one who did all of that!" The pilot of the Impulse said. While trying to sound at least a little angry, not that he had much luck with that.

Seeing as he was having quiet a tough time hiding that big grin that was threatening to appear on his face.

And when Heine turned and looked over at him with a truly surprised look on his face. He couldn't help but let out a small laugh. "Are you sure about that? I'm pretty sure that I remember something about a beach. But maybe I'm even more tired then I first thought!" He said, doing his best to sound truly shock over what Shinn had just told him. Yet that smile he had on his face made it pretty clear, that he was actually having fun acting like a fool.

Rolling his eyes a single time. Shinn asked the one question that enter his mind. "How the heck did you manage to become a part of FAITH?" He asked, while taking a glance down at the small angel wing like badges on Heine's chest.

Honestly wondering how in the world the orange haired man had gotten his hand on something like that. It was almost like he was completely incapable of being serious.

Looking a bit thoughtful at the gundam pilot beside to him, Heine smile a bit as he reached out and started the car. "Well truth be told I actually found this badges on the street one day, beside some wasted guy who had spend the whole night partying!" He explained. Actually sounding completely serious about everything he had just told Shinn.

Quickly realizing that Heine was once more kidding around. Shinn made the decision not to talk anymore with Heine tonight, he might find the GOUF pilot hilarious under normal circumstances.

But right now he was completely exhausted, which meant that the only thing he could think about right now, was getting back to headquarters and get some much needed sleep.

It truly had been a long hard day. And with that mind he slowly leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes, utterly determined to just sit there and relax until they got back home.

Noticing that his friend wasn't in the mood to talk anymore. Heine turned his attention back towards the almost black road in front of the car.

He knew that it was going to take a while for them to get back home, not that there was much traffic out there. But he was pretty sure that once they reached the city that would change, there might be a war going on.

But that certainly did not change the fact, that there was still people in this world, that enjoyed going out at night to have a good time.

Perhaps if he hadn't been so worn out. He too would have liked to go out and get a couple of beers together with a few pals.

Yet right now that was most definitely a stupid thing to do.

Seeing as he had next to no idea about what was going to happen tomorrow. And it would without a doubt be complete suicide if he went out in his GOUF drunk or with a hangover.

But it just might be funny as hell trying the combat simulator in such a state. Maybe once things calm down a bit and he was sure that there wasn't the possibility that they had to enter combat the next day.

He should consider trying something like that out, who knows maybe he would be an even better pilot with a little alcohol in his blood then he normally was.

It might also be a good idea to try asking some of the other pilots on the Minerva, if they where willing to try out his newly invented game. Perhaps it would even be more fun to see just how badly the others would control their mobile suits under the influence of a little alcohol. It wasn't like he would be able to remember anything if he was completely wasted.

So while still sitting there making plans for a more bright future. He could stop himself from letting a few mischievous chuckles. "I have to remember this idea to when the war is over!" He mumbled to himself. Just as he shifted gear and began driving just a bit faster down the somewhat empty road.

Hearing him say that. Shinn tiredly opened one of his eyes and took a small glance over at Heine. "What idea are you talking about?" He asked, while forcing back a yawn.

Not moving his gaze away from the road in front of them. Heine smile slightly as he turned the wheel a bit to the left, so they slowly past by another car that obviously wasn't in as big a hurry as they where.

"It's nothing really, I was just thinking out loud" he explained, still grinning like a complete idiot when thinking about his somewhat childlike plans for the future.

Yet for now he decided that it was properly best just to keep his somewhat crazy scheme to himself. There was really no telling how grumpy some people would get if they ever heard about his brilliant plan for living things up a bit.

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It was about ten hours after that.

When Athrun and Heine was up on the Minerva's bridge, busy discoursing the ship new orders, with the captain and the deputy commander. And where exactly they would be going once they left this place.

"So what you are saying captain, is that an Earth Alliance is fleet playing around in the Sea of Marmara, and that we and a few other Zaft force has been order to put a hold on their activates before they start making some kind of trouble out there?" Heine asked seriously.

While looking at the big digital map between them. Frankly wondering what in the world the Earth Forces could be doing out there.

One thing was certain, it was clearly a good strategy to head out to meet them before they could begin attacking one of the many Zaft bases in the area.

"Yes that's correct Heine. But what really worries me, are that they are not alone out there. Apparently there is an Orb fleet too, which seems to be backing up the Earth Forces!" Talia explained in a serious tone.

As she took a glance away from Heine and over at Athrun, where she immediately took notice of the shock look on his face.

He did after all have a lot to do with Orb. First of all he was in a pretty close relationship with the leader of that country. And Talia was absolutely certain that he had a great deal of friends back there too. So a small part of her just couldn't help but feel a little sorry for him. If the Orb fleet truly was assisting the Earth Forces. There was a very good chance that they would have to fight them too.

And while still thinking about that, she let out a small sigh as she turned her attention away from Athrun and back towards the map.

"But it isn't just the Orb fleet that worries me. I'm pretty certain that once we get out there. There is a very big chance that we would have to face of against our three stolen machine" the captain said.

While thinking about how much trouble the Chaos, Gaia and Abyss had made up until now. And she frankly hoped, that they would somehow be able to get rid of at least one of them, this time around.

Yet before she could think all that much about it. Arthur's voice suddenly interrupted her deep thoughts.

"Which...which one of them, do you think will be the most dangerous one in this battle captain?" He asked. Doing nothing to hide how much it worried him, that they would had to go up against those three machines one more time.

Just thinking back to their previous encounters with the stolen gundams. Was more then enough to make him feel all sweaty and nervous. It wasn't like they had been having much luck, against them before.

Hearing him asked that. Talia got a somewhat thoughtful expression on her face. "That's kinda hard to say Arthur. But seeing as we apparently will be fighting near or above water. It surely would be wise of us to keep a close eye on the Abyss! You know as well as me, what that mobile suit did the last time" the woman said, while thinking a bit sadly about what the Abyss had done to the Vosgulov class Nyiragongo.

"That does sound very clever captain. But our problem is that we don't really have any mobile suits that can fight under water. Maybe we should put in a request to get some of those!" Arthur said. While trying to figure out which one of Zaft's mass-produced water type mobile suit, that would be most effective against a machine as powerful as the Abyss.

Yet he was somewhat disappointed when Talia told him. That they did not have time to make such a request. And that they had to handle the Abyss without help from other water type mobile suits.

And even true the deputy captain obviously didn't like the idea of heading out without having something that could fight the Abyss under water.

He knew that the captain was right. They did not have the necessary time to ask for something like that. It would after all not be long now before they would have to leave this place. And it was pretty much impossible for them to get a couple of new mobile suits that fast.

And with that in mind the conversation continued about what else kind of resistance they could expect to meet out in the Sea of Marmara.

So after just standing there listening to them for a few minutes.

Heine slowly turned his attention away from them, and over at Athrun. That was just standing there with a far away look on his face, that made it pretty clear that he was having a lot on his mind right now.

"Hey Athrun, which one of those stolen gundams are the most challenging one?" He asked in a whisper that was just loud enough to get Athrun back to reality.

Yet that did not mean that he got a reply immediately. It took a couple of minutes, before Athrun finally opened his mouth and began telling Heine his opinion about the three gundams.

"I'm not entirely sure which of them is the most dangerous, they are after all made for completely different kinds of combat. Yet I do have a small score to settle with the Chaos" Athrun said quietly. Thinking back to his last fight with the green gundam.

One thing was sure if he got the opportunity this time. He would surely take that mobile suit out, before it could course any more trouble for them.

Hearing him say that. Heine nodded a few times in understanding. "I see, the Chaos is the green one right?" He asked, still talking in the same whisper like manner as before.

He really didn't want to disturb the captain and the second in command, that was still busy discoursing what could be waiting for them once they arrived at the Sea of Marmara.

Not really giving his friend's question much thought.

Athrun just turned and took a small glance over at the other pilot, where he watched him a second or two, before he told him which one was which of the three stolen mobile suits.

"Hmm that's nice to know, thank you for the information Athrun. I really don't know much about them seeing as I haven't fought any of them yet. But once we come across them, I'll make sure to leave the Chaos to you!" He said in a serious voice, while smiling a bit at his fellow pilot.

Just as he again took a glance over at the two leaders of the Minerva. But they where still quite far away in their own conversation.

So it did not take long before the two pilots was once more talking with each other about the stolen gundams.

"You don't have to stay away from the mobile suit for my sake Heine. If you get the opportunity to take it out then please take it. It's not like this is a competition about who of us can destroy the most mobile suits!" Athrun said, making sure that Heine knew he was serious about everything he had just said.

Hearing those words Heine smile a bit. He knew what it was like carrying a grudge against another pilot. And going in to battle with nothing else in mind then to beat a certain opponent could be somewhat dangerous.

Those mobile suit pilots who got caught up doing something like that. Did have the tendency from time to time to forget about the rest of the battlefield and all of their other comrades on it. Simply because they where to focused on taking out that one enemy.

"All right then Athrun. If I do come across the Chaos, I promise you that I'll show that little bastard what happens to little mobile suit thieves" the orange haired man said with a slightly confident tone in his voice. As he saw the other FAITH member nod a single time, obviously still quite far away in his own thoughts.

And quickly realizing that Athrun was not in the mood to talk. It did not take long before Heine once more turned his attention over on Talia and Arthur that by now was discoursing the condition of their own mobile suits.

And with nothing better to do at the moment. He began listening to everything the two chief commanders of the ship was saying each other.

Yet the conversation wasn't really that interesting. Seeing as he already knew that all of the mobile suits the Minerva had on board, was completely repaired and fully ready to head out in to combat. Which pretty much meant that their conversation was kinda boring.

And with Athrun's mind still busy visiting another galaxy. He really didn't have much to do at the moment.

But as Heine was standing there truly wondering, if it was his destiny to die of boredom.

Athrun was trying hard to figure out what he should do if he was forced to to go up against Orb.

He seriously did not want to do battle with his own fiancée's country. That would without a doubt hurt Cagalli badly, which was definitely not something he wanted to do.

Yet he did realize that he could not just stand back and do nothing. While the Chairman and everybody else was doing pretty much everything possible to bring this war to a quick end.

He just had to do something to help all of them out, even if it meant that he had to fight against Orb.

Yet even as he was standing there making up his mind about what to do. He could not help but curse the two Seirans a bit. If those two morons hadn't forced Cagalli to leave Orb. He was pretty sure that the small country would still be neutral like it had always been in the past.

Cagalli did after all desire the same peaceful path for the country as her father did. Yet thanks to Yuna Roma Seiran and his father that small wish had been somewhat brought to a hold. He just hoped that someday in the future Cagalli would be able to once again regain control of Orb, and somehow get the small country back to it's normal peace loving ways.

Yet as he stood there with all of those thoughts about Orb and his lovely fiancée flying through his head. The captain of the ship slowly turned away from Arthur and looked over at the two FAITH members.

Where she could easily tell that Heine was bored out of his mind. And that Athrun was thinking very hard about something, most likely the whole situation.

And even true she still felt somewhat sorry for him she didn't really show it much.

She had noticed shortly after the Junius Seven incident. Just how strongly Athrun and miss Cagalli's feelings was for each other, and having to fight against somebody you cared so much about, truly had to be terrible.

She couldn't even bring herself to image just how utterly conflicted the pilot of the Saviour was right now. She just hoped that he would be feeling a little better once they arrived at the Sea of Marmara.

So after watching both pilots a bit longer she cough slightly to get the two FAITH members attention over on her, and once she was completely sure that she had eye contact with each of them, she began talking in a firm tone.

"Now why don't the two of you get out of here. It will still take a while before we are leaving from here, so you two should really use this to your advantage and get some rest or something to eat" she said kindly, while giving each of the pilots a friendly smile.

Hearing the captain tell them that they where free to leave. The two pilots each gave her a short yet respectful salute, as they hurried turned around and left the bridge, without saying anything else.

Yet they had just badly stepped out in to the hall, when Heine stopped and looked over at his friend with a slightly curious expression on his face.

"Not that it's really any of my business Athrun. But do you mind telling me what's bothering you so much?" He asked in a tone, that was more then enough to make it completely clear for Athrun, that this was a very, very serious discussion.

And after using a couple of very long minutes to think about the question. Athrun slowly reached up and rubbed his eyes a few time, as he let out a deep breath that did sound a tiny bit exhausting.

"I'm not really keen on having to fight Orb. I really like that country and there are more then a few people back there that I care a lot about. So it's kinda hard for me to go up against them" the blue haired man explained. While thinking back to how happy and excited Cagalli had been, that day he had kneel down and asked her to marry him.

Quickly realizing that Athrun had once more disappearing back in to his own thoughts. The orange haired mobile suit piloted immediately made the decision to put in his two cents about the subject.

"I get what you are saying Athrun, and I really don't like it either. I have never been to Orb myself. Yet one of my old friends used to live there, and he always kept on talking about how great the country was!" Heine said in a loud voice, to prevent Athrun from once again begin thinking about all of those people he cared about back in Orb.

And when he was completely certain that all of the other pilot's attention was turned fully over on him. He slowly opened his mouth and once more began talking in a deeply serious tone.

"But you have to snap out of it. If you continue acting in this far away manner you will surely die out there. Then you will never be able to see any of those people ever again" Heine told him hardly. Just before he turned around and hurried walked off, leaving Athrun by himself so he could get some time to think about everything he had just said.

He just hoped that the pilot of the Saviour would take his advise.

He seriously did not want to see one more of his friends die at the hands of some random enemy mobile suit. Which was something he had already experienced more then a few times in the past.

And just thinking about it was more then enough to make a small unhappy frown ran over his forehead. As he began walking even fast down the hall.

Utterly determined to at the very least get a somewhat good meal down in his stomach, before the Minerva left this place.

000000

At the same time Athrun was looking after Heine with a somewhat thoughtful expression on his face.

He knew that the other FAITH member was right, he seriously needed to snap out of this. If he went in to combat feeling guilty and depressed there was a very large chance that he or one of his comrades could end up getting hurt.

And if something like that happened because he wasn't paying attention to the battle. He would never be able to forgive himself.

So he just had to be fully ready to go out and fight. Once the Minerva was done with whatever few preparation that was left.

And with that in mind he began making his way back to his chamber. He had woken up quite early this morning simply because he was hungry, yet as of right now he could most definitely use a good long nap.

And knowing that his mobile suit was fully ready to head out at any moment. He really didn't have anything to worry about right now.

He just hoped that there wasn't anybody around that need his help for something when he had finally fallen asleep. For some unknown reason some people did have the tendency to want to talk with him, whenever he was fast asleep.

Yet if he just made sure to luck his door. Then he was pretty certain that he could at the very least get a half hour of well needed rest. Before somebody decided that it was a good idea to wake him up again.

And just the thought about getting a small nap was more then enough to make him yawn loudly. Which he made sure to cover up with his hand, but as he continued walking down the hall.

He did not noticed a single female crew member watching him with a pair of curious eyes.

"He is just so incredible cute!" Meyrin quietly squealed to herself, while a soft blush slowly appeared on both of her cheeks, as her two pretty eyes continued looking after the handsome mobile suit pilot until he was completely out of sight.

Yet it took a couple of minutes for her to finally get her mind back to reality.

But even as she once more began make her way back to the bridge with slow steps. She just couldn't stop herself from thinking about how much she wished that she was able to overcome her embarrassment and actually say more then a few words to the truly handsome man. Yet no matter how much time went by she had always been somewhat shy around boys.

And that feeling was even higher around Athrun. Seeing as she was developing quite the crush on the blue haired pilot. She just hoped that she was somehow able to get over her embarrassment before her older sister showed him how she felt about him.

Why the heck did both of them have to like the exact same boy.

Why couldn't her older sister, have liked one of the other boys on the ship. Meyrin honestly did find Shinn way to childish for her taste. But he could actually be quite cute when he wanted to.

And Nicol was always so incredibly considerate towards both of them. So why in the world couldn't Lunamaria have liked one of those two instead of the cute blue haired gundam pilot.

Yet as she was walking there thinking about that, she almost walked straight in to one of the very people she was thinking so hard about. It was only when he let out a small cry of surprise, that she finally realized what had been about to happen.

"Wow hello there Meyrin, that was close! What where you daydreaming about this time?" Nicol asked in a friendly tone. While smiling kindly at the red haired girl in front of him. He knew that Meyrin did have the tendency to disappear in to her own thoughts, when she wasn't hard at work up on the bridge.

Yet even true he didn't show it much. He was a bit curious about what she had been thinking about this time.

Looking a bit at him. Meyrin felt her face get somewhat flushed again. Yet before Nicol could actually notice that. She quickly shook her head a couple of times in an attempt to remove the deep redness from her cheeks.

"It's nothing really. I was just thinking about everything that needs to be done before we leave this place!" She said, somewhat hoping that he hadn't notice how red her face was.

But much to her small misfortune. All the redness that was covering pretty much her entire face was kinda hard to miss. "Hm I understand. But please try not to work too hard Meyrin. You do look a bit flushed over there, you might just be coming down with something!" The green haired teen said in a slightly concerned tone.

As he slowly reached over and placed his hand on her forehead, trying to figure out if she was having a fever.

And from what he could tell she was a bit warm at the moment. Which made him consider telling her to go back to her room and relax for a bit. But before he could do that, she hurried reached up and push his hand away.

Now feeling even more embarrassed then before. Both because of her dreamy thoughts about being Athrun's girlfriend, and the fact that Nicol was so worried about her.

"I'm...I'm all right Nicol. It's nothing for you to worry about. I just have a lot on my mind right now!" She told him, wishing slightly that she could find someway to get out of there, before Nicol could ask her any more questions.

She was just feeling so shy and embarrassed at the moment. That it was kinda hard for the young woman to concentrate on both hiding her red face, and having a somewhat normal conversation with Nicol

Studying her face a bit longer.

Nicol wasn't entirely sure that he believed everything she had just said. She quite frankly did look somewhat fatigued right now, like she was either very close to getting sick or already was it.

Yet it could be that it wasn't nearly as bad as he had first thought. Perhaps she was simply feeling a bit stressed out.

It wasn't like the red haired girl had the most easy job on the ship. He knew quite well, that it could be very stressful being the CIC. Not that he had ever tried having that job himself. Yet he could clearly remember how exhausted miss Miriallia had been, from time to time two years ago.

And he was pretty certain. That Meyrin felt almost exactly the same way, when things got a little hectic around the ship.

So after just standing there for a few seconds just watching her. He once more opened his mouth and began talking to her in a gentle voice. "You really don't look all that well Meyrin. If I where you I would consider getting of my feet for at least a moment or two and just sit down a bit. And maybe get something to drink too. You really do look like you could use it" he said. Doing nothing to hide that he was still a bit concerned about her health.

Hearing him say that Meyrin couldn't help but smile a bit at her green haired friend. It was after all nice to know that he cared about her. "Hmm if you think that's for the best Nicol, then I'll go down to the mess hall and get a soda. I am actually kinda thirsty now that I really think about it" she said. Watching as Nicol smiled a bit in return.

"I'm happy to hear that Meyrin. Do you want me to go with you down there?" He asked in a gentle tone. Obviously still somewhat worried about her.

But Meyrin just shook her head a few times. Then told him that she would be all right and that she could make it there on her own. It wasn't like they where that far away from the mess hall.

Looking at her for a second or two more, Nicol nodded slowly in understanding. "I see. But do try and take it easy Meyrin, none of us here wants you to overexert yourself. So maybe once we are done out in the Sea of Marmara you should consider asking the captain, for a few days of to get some rest. It really do seem like you could use it!"

Slowly going over everything Nicol had just said. The girl got a somewhat thoughtful look on her face. "I highly doubt that it will be possible for me to get a few days of work Nicol. But I promise you that I'll immediately ask the captain about it, once we get back from the Sea of Marmara" she said, while dreaming about how nice it would be to have a few days of to just slack of and not do anything.

She did however not get much time, to really imagine just how cool it would be to have a weekend off, to play a few of her newly purchased video games or read one of her many books, without having to worry about anybody disturbing her.

"Well that's good to hear Meyrin. But unfortunately I have to get going now, there is few things I need to discourse with Yolant and Vino about my mobile suit" Nicol explained. Just as he turned around and slowly walked off, with Meyrin calling out after him that she would see him later.

And once he was completely out of sight. The young woman began making her way down to the mess hall, to get something to drink, like Nicol had so kindly advised her to do.

But even as her light footsteps could be heard echoing in the mostly empty hall. She couldn't stop herself from once more begin thinking about the handsome pilot of the Saviour gundam.

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Elsewhere on the Minerva.

Shinn and Lunamaria was sitting across from each other down in the mess hall. Having a very serious conversation about what was going to happen in just a few hours.

"Are you really sure about that Luna?" The boy asked loudly. As he used his fork to play around a bit with his food. Just before he took an enormous bite of the meal, chewing it thoroughly a couple of time before he finally swallowed it. After that he slowly reach over for the can of soda, that was standing not too far away from his plate of food.

But even with all five of his fingers wrapped around the tin object. He didn't do anything else, he just sat there staring at the female pilot with a angry glare in both of his eyes.

"Yep according to everything I heard Malik and Bart tell a little while ago. It really does seem like Orb is reinforcing them" the red haired girl explained.

While trying hard to figure out just how exactly Shinn was feeling about all of this. Orb was after all his home country.

Yet the only thing the pilot of the Impulse did was mutter something that sounded very much like that foolish country and their brain dead leaders. Once those words had left his mouth. He again began eating his dinner still with that displeased expression.

And even true Lunamaria quite frankly did want to continue the conversation with him.

She could easily tell by all his grumpy muttering that he seriously didn't felt like talking anymore. So after watching him a bit longer she also turned her attention back towards her own meal.

Yet the deep silence that was surrounding them at the moment, was somewhat nerve wrecking.

And she was truly relieved once she saw her younger sister enter the mess hall.

She hurried took one last glance over at Shinn's unhappy face. Then she stood up and immediately made her way over to Meyrin, determined to speak with her for a bit before the almost unbearable silence, could get any worse.

To be continued.


	25. Chapter 25

Chapter 25

It was about evening when the Minerva finally arrived at the Sea of Marmara.

The enormous grey space ship had just badly gotten in to the area before Bart spotted the first wave of incoming mobile suits.

"Captain we got about twenty Earth Forces Windams. Followed by two squadrons of both Murasames and Astrays. There is already got a small number of missiles heading right at us!" The man yelled loudly. While a great deal of the machine guns on the Minerva, was used to destroy all of the warheads before they could do any real damage on the ship.

Yet once the first wave of missiles was taken out.

Arthur immediately yelled out for the Tristans to be fired up at the many still incoming mobile suit. Which meant that a few of them where destroyed, while the rest of them quickly evaded away from the attack.

But as they where doing that a few missiles left the Minerva and flew full speed up and took a few more of them out.

"Hurry up and get the gundams and the two GOUFs out there. And tell Lunamaria and Rey that they are on standby, until further notice!" The captain yelled. Just as a new wave of incoming mobile suits began opening fire at them.

But thanks to the ships many weapons. They once more avoided taking any serious damage. Even true the ship did shake a bit, when one of the Murasames got in a lucky shot.

But even with the minor damage the Minerva had just sustain on it's hull. The ship continued forward like all of the attacks from the many mobile suits was nothing to worry about.

And when the Saviour and the Impulse left the ship. It meant that a great deal of the mobile suits out there, soon had something else to worry about. Especially when the two GOUFs left the hangar and joined the battle.

So with the enemy machine occupied with something else. It did not take long before they could see an enormous fleet created of both Orb ships and Earth Forces ships.

Just the sight of all the warships out there, was more then enough to worry a few of them. If they had to fight all of them, there was a very good chance that they would be destroyed.

But when Talia called out for the Tannhauser to be made ready to fire. Some of the crews concerns did fade slightly. Just as the giant cannon came out at the front of the Minerva ,and was soon aimed at the many ships out there.

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Outside all of the pilots instantly realized what was about to happen.

Each of them had a somewhat different reaction to the whole thing. Both Shinn and Heine firmly believed that this was the best way to take out a great deal of the enemy forces in a hurry. Nicol on other hand didn't really showed how he felt about all of this.

The only one out there that was feeling a bit depressed about seeing so many people getting kill by the Minerva's Tannhauser was Athrun.

"Please forgive me Cagalli!" The boy mumbled quietly to himself. Just as the giant cannon began glowing red.

But just as all of them where expecting an enormous red beam to leave the cannon.

Two green beams suddenly came flying in from out of nowhere and hit the Tannhauser making the cannon blow up before it could do any damage to the fleet of warships.

Once that happened all of the pilots from the Minerva immediately let out a few shocked gasp. "What the heck was that?" Shinn asked loudly while trying to find the source of the attack on the Minerva.

Yet he didn't have to search for long before he found the two machine that had been responsible for all the heavy damage on the ship.

But before he could say anything else he suddenly heard Nicol's voice ask Athrun something very interesting.

"Athrun isn't that...!" The green haired boy asked in a truly shocked tone. Just as a certain white and blue gundam, dropped down from above where it immediately spread out it's ten long wings.

Only to be follow shortly by a light blue Murasame. That hurried transformed over in to it's mobile suit mode, and was now floating directly behind the other mobile suit. Apparently ready to function as backup if it was required.

Yet it was only a brief moment after the second mobile suit had showed up. That Athrun called out the name of the first machine, which he had no trouble recognizing even true it had been two whole years, since he had last seen his best friend's mobile suit.

"The...the Freedom...Kira!" He yelled out in a shocked tone. While looking at the very gundam that had killed Rau Le Creuset in the last war.

But even as he was sitting there looking at the Freedom. His eyes slowly made their way over to the blue Murasame. It really didn't take that much of a genius to find out who exactly was inside that machine.

"Dearka, Kira! What are the two of you doing here?" He asked in a whisper. Doing nothing to hide how much his two friends present in the area surprised him.

Unfortunately he really didn't get much time to get over his minor shock. Before Nicol diverted his attention away from the two mobile suits and over on something else that was also hastily approaching the area.

And even true Athrun had been wondering where in the world it had been all of this time. He was still greatly surprised at seeing it here of all places.

"It looks exactly the same, as it did two years ago!" Nicol said in a somewhat nostalgic tone.

Just as his two brown eyes slowly moved over the enormous white space ship. And from what he could tell from all the way back here, there was really no visible changes on the Archangel.

It looked pretty much as it had done the very last time he had laid eyes on it.

Yet even true both Athrun and Nicol was truly surprise and confused over the Archangel's present. None of them let their guard down, even true the battle had pretty much dropped to a hold. All of them where now watching the almost legendary mobile suit and the white space ship. All of them waiting a bit impatiently to see what was going to happen next.

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So while most people there was busy being shocked over seeing the Archangel and the Freedom.

There was a small conversation going on between the pilots of the two newly arrived mobile suits.

"Hmm it would seem like the information my lovely girlfriend gave me about what was going to happen here was true!" Dearka Elsman said over from his Murasame.

While taking a brief glance around, for anything that could threaten him. But everything seemed somewhat calm at the moment, even with the grand number of mobile suits, that was gather up there.

Not really saying anything to that at first. Kira just sat quietly in the Freedom also taking a looking around at all of the military forces gather in the area.

Yet it was only when his eyes got over to the two other gundams, that he finally open his mouth and began talking in a serious tone.

"It looks that way. I just didn't expected to see so many of them out here. You better watch your back over their Dearka. Miriallia would properly strangle me, if anything happened to you!" Kira said. While using a brief moment or two, to try and figure out which one of the gundams over by the Minerva, that was the biggest threat to the Archangel, and his friend in the mobile suit behind him.

Thinking a few seconds about how it would look if Miriallia really did try to strangle Kira.

The pilot of the blue Murasame couldn't stop himself from letting out a small laugh.

The entire thought of his normally sweet and beautiful girlfriend doing such a thing. Was actually a bit amusing in his eyes, not to talk about absolutely ridiculous.

The brown hair girl simply cared way too much about her friends to actually do something like that. Which was properly one of the reasons why the whole thought about it, was somewhat funny.

Yet knowing that now was not the best time to be thinking about that.

Dearka again turned his attention back towards the gundam in front of him. Still keeping a close eye on all of the mobile suits nearby. He seriously didn't want to get shot down, because Kira and him was busy talking about Miriallia.

Seeing as he had once more chosen to pilot a mobile suit. He seriously did feel like he had a responsibility, to come back to the woman he loved.

But as he was sitting there looking at the Freedom. He kinda did feel like he had to say something back. "You be careful too Kira, I seriously don't want to suffer a gruesome and painful death at the hands of the pink princess!" He said in a slightly sarcastic tone.

That made it clear that he just was kidding around, even under the dire circumstances they where in right now. There was just no telling when the battle would start up again.

Not getting much time to smile at his friends joke. Kira quickly became serious again, when Lacus' voice told him and Dearka that the Duel Rouge was leaving the Archangel.

Which meant that it pretty much only took a few minor minutes. Before the somewhat outdated mobile suit, flew past the light blue Murasame, and got over beside the Freedom.

Where it immediately caught the attention of mostly everybody out there. The majority of them truly wondering what in the world was going on now. Yet they did not have to wait long for answers, before they all heard a female voice began talking out over every single radio canal that existed.

"This is Cagalli Yula Athha addressing all of the Orb force in this region! I hereby order all of you, to cease all military actions in this area, and immediately withdraw from this territory!" The blond haired girl said in a tone. Which made it completely clear that she was serious about everything she had just said.

Yet before any of the soldiers there could really think about what she had just said.

The Orb leader could once more be heard over the radio. "Assisting the Earth Forces in a attack on the Minerva and Zaft are not going to benefit Orb. So please all of you turn around and return back home to Orb!" Cagalli said in the exact same tone as before. Truly hoping that the commandos of the enormous Orb fleet gather there, would follow the orders she had just given them.

And even true everybody there had heard what she had just said there wasn't really much reaction at first.

The Minerva kept it's position down on the ocean surface, where it had landed when Kira and Dearka had destroyed the Tannhauser. While it's four mobile suits was nearby, keeping a close watch over the ship, incase the battle should break out once more.

Yet Zaft wasn't really the Archangel's and it's mobile suits main concern right now. They where all the more interested in seeing how the Earth Forces and especially Orb was going to handle this situation.

But up until now there had been pretty much no movement from any of their fleets. Which only served to make both Dearka and Kira even more cautious about their surroundings.

As they both took a quick look around. For anything that looked ready to attack the Duel Rouge, yet everything seemed somewhat calm at least now.

Yet if somebody where to take a serious look at the Orb mobile suits out there. They would notice that a few of them had dropped their guard a bit. Like they where just waiting for orders from the Takemikazuchi.

But other then that there wasn't really much changes.

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At the same time down on the Takemikazuchi.

Yuna had a wicked look in his eyes that could most likely kill. Why the heck hadn't his father and him destroyed that blond bitch when they had the chance. It could have been so easy hiring some pro assassin that could have gotten rid of her without making it clear that the Seirans was involved.

Yet now such an idea was pretty much impossible.

They seriously should have given more thought about Cagalli's removal before she had ran off from Orb on board the Archangel.

Unfortunately both his father and him had been so busy winning the trust of the other politicians back home. That they hadn't gotten much time to really go over what kind of trouble Cagalli could make for them.

Yet one thing was certainly clear after this little interference, the damn girl still firmly believed that she was the leader of Orb.

Who the heck did that bitch think she was. There was no way that girl was the leader of Orb anymore.

Not after he and his father had gone through all of this trouble gaining control of Orb. But as he sat there sulking about that a angry voice suddenly began talking over the radio channel.

"Yuna Roma Seiran please explain yourself immediately. Who is that person inside that mobile suit and why is she ordering your forces to withdraw!" Neo Roanoke asked loudly.

Seriously hoping that the purple haired man had some kind of believable explanation to all of this mess. Not that it actually matter all that much to him what the Seiran had to say.

Thanks to all of the damage the Freedom and the blue Murasame had made to the Minerva there was a very, very good chance that they could finally show the crew on board the Minerva all the nice coloured fish at the bottom of the ocean.

Something he was quite sure they would appreciate a great deal. Yet it would definitely be easier sinking that ship, if the Orb forces gave them a hand.

Yet if they really did retreated from this area, like that girl had asked them to. He would have to find a somewhat inventive way to deal with that country. But for now it was properly best to concentrate on taking out the Minerva, it was quite an easy target right now, even without the Orb forces assistant.

But once he heard the purple haired imbecile's next words. He knew that he really didn't have anything to worry about.

It was just so incredibly easy manipulating a man like Yuna Roma Seiran. Especially because he actually thought he was flawless, which was a trade that could easily be used to his advantage.

And even as he slowly leaned back in his seat. He gave the man beside him a small signal, that was more then enough to tell him to get the Chaos, Gaia and Abyss, ready to launch.

"Well...well...you see that girl she...she is...she is an impostor! I don't know anything about her, and just think about what she said whoever is inside that mobile suit is clearly crazy!" Yuna yelled loudly.

Getting a shocked grasp from both captain Todaka and lieutenant Amagi, as they each immediately turned and looked over at the Seiran. Not bothering at all to hide their disbelieve over what Yuna had just told the mask man, on the other warship.

But even as Yuna kept on telling the blond man how insane the female impostor inside the Duel Rouge was.

Captain Todaka slowly stepped away from his old friend and over beside Yuna, where it was pretty obvious that he was just waiting for the young Seiran to put the damn phone away.

So he could get a few serious words in about this. One really had to be quite brain dead not to realize that it truly was the real Cagalli Yula Athha that was out there in the Duel Rouge.

And immediately after Yuna pretty much throw the the phone back to where it belonged. Todaka stood there for a second or two, just staring at the purple hair man with a somewhat unreadable expression.

He was still having a tough time believing, everything he had just heard Yuna say about Cagalli.

"What the heck do you think you are doing sir? You know just as well as I that it really is miss Cagalli that is out there in the Duel Rouge. So why did you tell that man that it was an impostor?" Todaka asked in a hard tone, while trying not to show the other soldiers up there how much he really wanted to plant his fist in Yuna's face right now.

Glaring a bit at the captain.

Yuna did nothing to hide how bad his mood was right almost looked like he was just about ready to jump up from his chair and start yelling and screaming like a small spoil child, that always got his way.

But amazingly enough he was somehow able to put a damper on his almost boiling temper. As he began talking back in a somewhat reasonable tone.

"How can you know that it is Cagalli out there? We don't know anything about the woman inside that mobile suit. It might as well be some weird girl they discovered that sound just like my fiancée. Now hurry up and take that mobile suit out, before the Earth Forces starts to think that the Orb forces is a bunch of weaklings that is afraid to fight!" He yelled so loud, that it could properly be heard all over the ship.

But even with the loud volume Todaka still wasn't sure that he heard right. Was the purple man seriously planing to shot at the Duel Rouge. What the heck was going through that man's mind at the moment, they couldn't do something like that. Miss Cagalli was after all the rightful leader of Orb.

So shooting at the clever young woman would pretty much be consider as treason in Todaka's eyes. And one single look around the bridge was more then enough to tell him, that he wasn't the only one who felt that way.

But just as he was about to complain about those orders.

Yuna once more order them to open fire on the Duel Rouge. Yet just as Amagi was about to say something about this whole matter, the purple haired man cut him off quite loudly.

"And if we don't shoot at her, there is the possibility that the Earth Forces will start attacking our country. Do all of you really want a repeat of that terrible nightmare that struck our country two years ago, because of some strange girl that just show up from out of nowhere and began talking out over the radio!" The purple haired man asked. While taking a short glance around at everybody else up there.

Where he saw a few of them nod slowly to what he himself believed was some very clever words. Yet once his eyes landed on Todaka and Amagi, he noticed that both of them where watching him, with a somewhat displeased look in their eyes.

Yet just as Yuna was about to call out his orders one more time. The grey haired captain of the Takemikazuchi turned his gaze away from the Seiran and back out at the Duel Rouge.

Spending a few seconds to just look it over, before he let out a small breath.

"Prepare to open fire on the unknown mobile suit!" He ordered. Not once taking his eyes away from the red coloured gundam that was still floating around beside the Freedom.

But even with his attention turned out towards the very mobile suit that was piloted by properly one of the people he respect most in this world.

He could still feel a great deal of totally shocked gazes looking at him. Yet it was only when his best friend reach out and placed a hand on his shoulder, that he finally looked away from the MBF-05 Duel Rouge and back at the person behind him.

"You can't really be serious about this Todaka, you know who is inside the machine, you can't seriously believe what Yuna Roma is saying?" Amagi asked still having a tough time figuring out what his friend was thinking about. His whole expression was just so damn hard to read at the moment.

In all of those years Amagi had been friends with Todaka he had never once seen him look like this before- And it was truthfully a bit frightening, but before he could really give it all that much thought. Todaka leaned forward and whispered a few words to him.

"Just keep quiet for now and follow my lead. I promise you I will tell you everything once this is over!" He said just as he stepped away from his old friend, and once more repeated the order, about shooting at the Duel Rouge gundam.

Which again made a somewhat shocked look ran over a few peoples faces.

But even true Amagi still wasn't entirely sure what was going through his friend's head. He made the decision to play along.

"But captain Todaka. What if it really is Lady Cagalli out there in that mobile suit!" He asked doing his best to seem, as conflicted about all of this as the rest of the Athha supports was.

Taking a brief glance over at his old friend. Todaka immediately realized what he was doing and he was truly grateful for the assistance.

"Well lieutenant Amagi I for one believe that Lord Yuna is right about what he is saying. There is really no proof that it is Lady Cagalli that's inside that mobile suit, it might as well be a complete stranger. Now no more stalling get ready to fire!" He ordered, making sure that his face didn't show just how badly he was feeling about this.

Yet even true he could still clearly sense that there was more then a few people presented that was very displeased about this whole matter. Not that he did not know the feeling.

But as he felt a few slightly hateful glares hitting him. He slowly turned and looked back out at the white and blue mobile suit beside the Duel Rouge.

'I'm counting on you Freedom, to protect Lady Cagalli!' He thought with a somewhat blank look in his eyes. Just as he yelled out for the Takemikazuchi and the rest of the Orb fleet to open fire.

And it was only a brief moment later when a bunch of missiles was launch from the Orb ships. And was now heading full speed towards the rightful leader of Orb.

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Seeing all of those missiles leaving the Orb ships most people out there had some kind of reaction.

Athrun called out his fiancée's name. Truly concerned that one of the many warheads was going to hit her mobile suit.

But even as he was leaning forward in the Saviour's cockpit looking with wide eyes after the missiles.

He heard both Heine and Nicol let out a shocked grasp while Shinn mumbled something that sounded very much like typical Orb.

Which Athrun choice to ignore, seeing as pretty much all of his attention turned towards the Duel Rouge. An enormous part of him was almost on the verge of yelling and screaming for him to take off, and leave the others behind. So he could help out the woman he loved so much.

Yet there was a very tiny part of him that kept on saying that there was no way he could reach her in time. Even with the Saviour's top speed.

So as much as he truly hated this. The only thing he could do was watch as the many warheads got closer and closer to the Duel Rouge.

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"Holy crap! I can't believe they did something like that!" Dearka yelled loudly truly concerned about his blond haired friend. And he too was actually quite tempted to try and take out some of the warheads.

Yet he realized that if he really did something like that. He would most likely get in the Freedom's way, and that mobile suit was with no doubt better suited to handle this situation.

So he kept the position he was in right now, keeping guard over Cagalli incase somebody would try and attack the Duel Rouge from behind. He was after all pretty sure that the blond haired girl was in shock at the moment. It wasn't everyday that once own people would try to kill their rightful leader.

Yet even as Dearka was sitting there. He saw the Freedom move forward a bit, where he could easily tell that Kira was getting ready to use the mutually target lock system, to destroy all of the missiles.

So while Dearka was keeping a close eye on both the Freedom and the Duel Rouge. Kira was watching as the last few warheads appeared on the target lock.

Once there it did not take long before the Freedom fired off every single weapon it had, taking out all of the missiles with no trouble at all. But even while busy protecting his sister he was still trying to figure out what was going on.

Kira knew that Yuna Roma Seiran was crazy. Yet he had just never expected, that the purple haired bastard, would go as far as to try so openly to kill Cagalli, with so many people watching.

Yet when he was finally done taking out all of the missiles. He saw a great deal of Earth Forces Windams now heading full speed towards the Minerva, obviously planing to attack the grey space ship.

And as much as he really wanted to help the Zaft ship out. There was no way he could leave Cagalli alone. There was just no telling how confuse his sister was over this development.

He had to stay nearby to protect her. If the Orb fleet was willing to try and shoot her down one time. He was pretty sure that they wouldn't feel much guilt, in doing it a second time.

And even with those thoughts going through his mind. He hurried fired a few shots at a couple of Windams that was coming straight towards him. Destroying the right arm of the first one, and the head of the second one.

"Cagalli! Dearka! Are you guys all right?" Kira asked loudly, while using the beam rifle to destroy two minor missiles that was coming right at him.

"Ohhh we are just dandy Kira. This is just like being out on a date with Miriallia!" Dearka yelled with a bit of sarcasm in his voice, while shooting of his own rifle in to the chest of the closed Windam.

And once he was sure that there was no other enemy mobile suits nearby, that could threaten the still completely silent girl.

He hastily transform the Murasame back over in to it's mobile armor and took of after two Windams that was trying to sneak past Kira and him.

Yet when they notice that he was getting ready to attack them it did not take long before both of them where trying their best to shoot him down. But unfortunately for them Dearka easily avoid all of their attacks.

And once he got past them.

He didn't waste anytime in getting the blue war machine back over in it's mobile suit mode. Where he immediately planted one well placed shot in to the back of each of the Windams, making both of them crash full speed down in to the ocean.

Yet once he was sure that those two where out of the way he began making his way back to the Archangel.

Meanwhile not far away.

Kira hurried pulled out one of the right beam sabers, as he flew full speed towards a small group of Earth Forces mobile suits where he hurried cut the head of two of them and the right arm of the next one.

After that the two plasma cannons jumped over the Freedom's shoulders, and was fired off after a fourth Windam, where the beams destroyed both the right arm and the head on the mobile suit.

Which meant that they where pretty much Windam free for now. Seeing as the rest of the Earth Forces mobile suits was presently busy trying to destroy the Minerva.

And from what Kira could tell from all the way over here. The Minerva's mobile suits was doing a pretty good job keeping the Earth Forces machines occupied.

So with nothing else to do. He turned and flew full speed back towards the Duel Rouge, determined to see if his sister was all right. She had been pretty quiet since the Orb ships tried to shoot her down.

Not that anybody could blame her for that.

This surely wasn't what they had left their hideout for back in Scandinavia. The sole reason why they had traveled all of this way, was to try and talk the Orb forces in to returning back home. Yet that task was clearly not going to be accomplish at this point in time.

So for the time being it was properly best to try and protect his obviously still shocked sister and the Archangel.

And once he reached the Duel Rouge. He immediately began talking to her in a gentle tone, hoping to somehow snap her out of whatever was wrong with her.

"Hey sis please answer me! Please say something Cagalli!" He said.

Using the rifle to disarm another one of the Windams. That apparently had made the discovery that the Duel Rouge was quite an easy target at the moment, seeing as the red gundam wasn't really showing any signs of movement.

But thanks to Kira and Dearka. Not one of the Windams succeed in getting in range of the Duel Rouge.

But even as the two boys continued on fighting like that. Kira kept on trying to get Cagalli to answer him. Yet it was only when some of the Orb forces join in on the attack on the Minerva that Cagalli finally got back to reality.

"What the HECK are they doing? Don't they realize that I told them to pull BACK ALREADY?" She yelled out in a loud tone, while watching all the fighting going on over by the grey Zaft ship.

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Back on the Takemikazuchi.

Yuna was watching the battle with a angry frown on his face, as he turned and looked over at Todaka. "Why is our force only attacking the Minerva? Hurry up and tell them to get rid of the Archangel too!" He order. While glaring out at the white space ship.

If there was one thing in this world he truly hated with a passion, then it was the Archangel. Especially after it took the blond bitch away before he could have gotten her killed.

Hearing him say that. Todaka immediately turned and looked over at the Seiran. "You have got to be kidding! Don't you realize what that ship did for Orb in the last war?" The captain of the ship asked. Also taking a glance out at the Archangel. Thinking about how deep his respect was for all of those brave people on board the Archangel.

Yet before he could really give it much thought.

Yuna told him his opinion on the Archangel. "That ship has been nothing but trouble ever since it first enter Orb! So lets not waste this opportunity, to finally get rid of it!" He said, already looking forward to see the few remains of both the rogue ship and the Zaft ship disappearing slowly in to the sea.

Looking at the Seiran a bit longer. Todaka gave his lower lip a hard bite, while he slowly turned his gaze away from the despicable man.

And after taking in the sight of the Archangel one more time. He unwillingly gave the order for the Murasames and the Astrays to concentrate their firepower on the Archangel too.

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At the same time over by the Minerva.

Athrun had just finished taking out two Murasames, when suddenly a few beams and missiles came flying at him.

So without wasting anytime in seeing where the attack was coming from. He hurried got the Saviour over in to it's mobile armor mode where he immediately evade up over the beams, then used the plasma beam cannons to destroy the warheads.

Once they where out of the way.

He quickly turned the red gundam around to see where the attack had originate from. And it did not really take much time, before both of his eyes spotted the Chaos gundam. Just as it fired off yet another round of beams after him.

And seriously not wanting to turn his back on this guy. Athrun smoothly maneuvered the Saviour in between the heavy attack, amazingly enough avoiding every single one of the beams.

So to not give his opponent yet another opportunity to shot him down.

He quickly got the gundam over in mobile suit mode, where he fired of both the beam rifle and the plasma cannons down after the green mobile suit.

Forcing the damn machine to change curse in a hurry. So not to give the bastard the opportunity to recover from his attack. Athrun stayed on his tail no matter what firing one beam after another down after the Chaos that did pretty much everything possible to evade all of his attacks.

Yet once Athrun notice that the enemy pilot was getting some reckless in the way he was using the green mobile suit.

Athrun hurried pulled out the right beam saber then flew full speed straight downwards towards the stolen war machine. Where he immediately thrust the deadly weapon out after the Chaos gundam. Seriously trying to remove both of it's arms.

Yet before the saber could even touch the other mobile suit. The Chaos hurried throw itself backwards so the only thing Athrun succeed in hitting was the beam rifle.

Which the Chaos hurried throw away and pulled out it's own beam saber. And it wasn't even a second later, when both sabers was slammed together. Each gundam struggling hard against each other.

Yet not wanting to take the risk of being hit by the beam blades that was stored in the Chaos' legs. Athrun quickly pull back from the other gundam.

And before it could even think about following him. He hurried took aim and fired of the two plasma cannons almost blowing the left leg right off the Chaos.

But before the two red beams could actually do any damage. The green mobile suit quickly rolled to the side, and once it got to a hold. It hastily shoot of the rest of the missiles it had on board.

Seeing the many warheads heading his way Athrun didn't waste anytime in getting the Saviour over in to it's mobile armor. And was soon flying full speed away from all of the damn things.

Yet once he had a little distance from the missiles, he hurried transformed again and used all of the Saviour's long range weapons to destroy all of the approaching warheads.

And once he was sure that there wasn't anymore left. He raced off after the Chaos.

Which pretty much meant, that it did not take long before both of them where doing everything possible to rip each other apart.

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Meanwhile not that far away from where Athrun was playing with the Chaos.

Shinn and Nicol was trying their best to find the Abyss. That was hiding out down in the dark ocean water. "Damn it! I'm really getting tired of that tincan of a mobile suit!" Shinn cursed, while firing of the beam rifle in to the sea, where he could see a dark blurry shape moving around.

Unfortunately the blue gundam was moving way to fast down there for him to hit it. Yet thanks to the way he and Nicol kept on pursuing the Abyss, it couldn't really do much else other then stay down there. For every single time it tried to resurfaced both of them forced it to back down in to the ocean.

And thanks to both of their hard effort. The Abyss really didn't get many chance to counterattack.

But that did not mean that the two boys stopped being cautious.

They each realized that the Abyss was a very powerful mobile suit, that should not be underestimate even when it was only defending itself like it was doing now. "Be patient Shinn. I'm sure that soon or later he will resurfaces!" Nicol yelled.

Just as he turned his yellow mobile suit around and used the beam gun to destroy a single M1 Astray.

Yet before he could even begin searching for the Abyss again.

He was attacked from behind by another Astray. And even true it first two shots came dangerously close to hitting him, he somehow succeed in evading down under the beams.

Where he immediately throw the heat rod straight up in to the cockpit of the red and white mobile suit, killing whoever was inside it. Yet before he could do anything else Shinn got down beside him and fired a few beams down in to the ocean.

Which forced to blurry shape of the Abyss to once again descend further down in the deep blue water.

Seeing the shape of the gundam disappear again. Nicol took a small glance over at the Impulse. "Thank you for that Shinn, I hadn't noticed that he was almost directly beneath me!" The green haired boy said, as he hurried shoot of a few beams after a lonely Murasame that quickly retreated away from the two of them.

And once that machine was almost out of sight.

The two boys again turned their attention back to the ocean, hoping to find the Abyss before it could resurface. "You are welcome Nicol, always happy to help out a team mate" Shinn said.

Then aimed the beam rifle down at the shape of the Abyss gundam, that actually succeed in getting out of the water this time, where it did not waste any time, in firing all the weapons it had in both of it's fins, up after them.

Yet after evading the somewhat vicious attack.

Both of them immediately began firing back.

Both of them doing their best to once more drive the Abyss down in the sea. And it did not take long before the blue gundam transformed in to it's mobile armor mode and disappeared back in to the ocean.

"Damn it! Who the heck could have known that this guy was such a coward!" Shinn yelled out in a angry tone. It was seriously getting on his nerves playing hide and seek with the stolen gundam like this.

But he knew that he didn't have any other choice. If the two of them took of to fight something else, there was the possibility that the Abyss would start attacking the Minerva instead. And with that in mind Shinn fired a few more beams in to the water, while Nicol used his beam sword to cut a single somewhat provoking Windam in half.

Making the pieces of the mostly white mobile suit crash in to the sea, where it didn't take long before they blow up.

After using a few minor seconds to watch that. Nicol took of in the direction where he could see Shinn messing around with the Abyss, that by now was sailing around just under the ocean surface, where it used both of it's dual beam cannons to try and shoot down the Impulse, that hurried evade the attack while trying to get a good aim with the rifle.

Unfortunately the blue mobile suit was moving way to fast at the moment for Shinn to hit the machine.

Yet when Nicol rejoined the fun and games. The Abyss apparently realized that it was much more secure under the water.

And soon disappear down in to it again, still with the two boys chasing after it just above the blue sea water. Making sure, that it could not resurface without getting a serious beating.

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Elsewhere in on dry land.

Stella was watching the Impulse as it fired a few more beams in to the water after the Abyss.

It was as times like these that the blond haired girl seriously wished that the Gaia could fly or swim. She really wanted to get out there and reduce the Impulse in to nothing else then a few minor pieces of trash, that couldn't badly be recognized by the pilot's own team mates.

But unfortunately it was pretty much impossible for her to get the black gundam all the way out there.

Yet as she stood there looking out after the enemy mobile suit, there was something else that caught her attention.

It was one of those ZAKU look-alike mobile suits she had fought that time she and the others had stolen the three gundams.

And even true it was not the exact same one as back at Armory One. She couldn't help but hate this one just as much, so after witnessing it take out two Murasames and a Windam.

She decided that if she could not reach the Impulse, she could always take out her frustration on the orange mobile suit.

And with that in mind she hurried got the Gaia over in it's quadruped mode. Where she immediately took aim and began firing both of the beam cannons up after the GOUF that increase it's speed to avoid all of her somewhat relentless attacks.

Yet before she could really enjoy the sight of the evading mobile suit it suddenly turned without warning and throw that damn electrical thing down at her. Sending a few thousand volts through her gundam.

Which was more then enough to make her scream loudly, as she quickly forced the Gaia backwards and away from the weapon. Yet she didn't really get much time to get over the attack before she saw the stupid thing coming at her one more time.

And seriously not feeling like getting another shock like that. She hurried jumped up over the whip like weapon, then ran full speed away from the Zaft mobile suit just as a few beams came flying down after her.

Yet once she was sure that there was some distance between them.

She brought the Gaia to a hold. Then turned and was just about to open fire on the enemy mobile suit, when she noticed the heat rod heading straight towards her.

"Damn you bastard!" She cursed hatefully, as she quickly got the Gaia moving again, so the electrical weapon hit the ground instead of her. Yet she didn't go very far this time, before she jumped up from the ground and got the black gundam back over in to it's mobile suit mode.

And before the dumb bastard could even consider throwing the damn whip after her one more time.

She took aim and began violently firing of her beam rifle after the enemy machine. That did not waste anytime, in getting back up in to the air.

Yet seeing him do that. Stella could not stop herself from smiling a bit.

"That wouldn't do you any good bastard. Stay still so I can kill you already!" The blond girl yelled out after the mobile suit.

That had very little trouble evading all of her attacks. Yet once she noticed just how easy a time the stupid bastard was having, she began concentrating a bit more on where she was aiming the rifle.

Unfortunately that proved to be a mistake on her part.

Seeing it didn't take long before the weapon was entangled by the whip that immediately send off who knows how many volts, which was more then enough to make the rifle blow up.

"I really hate you!" She yelled loudly, while getting the right beam saber ready to fight. Just as the orange GOUF got it's sword out from it's hiding place, and it wasn't many seconds after that, before the two war machine slammed their close range weapons together.

Each of them clearly trying their hardest to knock their opponent over so they could give the finishing blow.

Yet doing something like that was easier said then done. Both of them where having quite a hard time trying to defeat each other.

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So while all of this was going on.

The Archangel was facing a bit of a challenge itself, going up against all the mobile suits that was now approaching her.

Yet before any of them had the necessary time to even begin attacking the white space ship.

They where either shoot down by the light blue Murasame or disarmed by the Freedom. And those few machines, that actually somehow manage to get past the two defenders was quickly driven away by the Archangel.

"Hey Dearka are you with me?" Kira asked in a serious voice.

Just as he got over in to seed mode and used all of the Freedom's weapons to remove the heads and arms on a great deal of the still incoming mobile suits, that did everything possible to avoid the heavy attack.

Yet those few pilots that actually had the necessary skill to avoid getting hit was smart enough to try and get away from the white gundam.

Seeing them retreat like that Dearka took a small glance over at the Freedom, still somewhat impressed at how well his friend handle that machine, it kinda made him miss his old Buster gundam a bit.

Yet knowing that now was not the best time to think about that. He once more turned his attention back towards the battle that was going on over by the Minerva.

"You just lead the way Kira, I'm right behind you!" Dearka yelled. Using the beam rifle to disarmed a Murasame that had been just about to attack him. He might not be as good at the whole disarming thing as Kira. But that did not mean he couldn't do it when he tried.

Yet as he was thinking about that he noticed the white and red mobile suit coming towards him again now with it's beam saber out.

Yet before he could even try to fight this guy a single well placed shot from the Freedom was more then enough to destroy the Murasame's right arm, thereby making sure that the weapon couldn't be used for anything.

"Thank you Kira, that was very kind of you" Dearka said. While firing a few shots after the guy that had been just about to fight him, hoping that by doing that was all that was need to get him to head back to the Takemikazuchi.

And even true the guy did stick around a few seconds longer. It did not take long before he turned away and began making his way back to the enormous Orb ship.

Hearing his friend say that. Kira was just about to say something back, when he had to use his shield to defend himself from two hastily approaching Murasames that was attacking him.

Yet before any of them could do any real damage to the Freedom. He hurried pulled out the beam saber and immediately used it to remove one of the wings on each of the two transformed Orb mobile suits.

"All right then Dearka lets go! Mr Waltfeld could you please look after Cagalli and the Archangel?" The brown haired teenage asked loudly.

Just as he got the Freedom over beside Dearka's Murasame. That at this very moment had just finished taking out a Windam that had attempted to sneak up behind him. And it had only been thanks to Lacus' small warning that the bastard hadn't even gotten one attack off.

Yet as the two friends was floating beside each other, shooting at pretty much everything that moved. They each heard the Desert Tiger tell them that they should just go on ahead. And that he would look after the blond princess and the Archangel.

And knowing that Cagalli would be well protected with the Desert Tiger looking after her.

The two boys turned and took of full speed towards the Earth Forces fleet. That was obviously getting ready to launch a few more squadrons of Windams to send of against the Minerva.

And that was something they each where determined to prevent no matter the cost.

Which pretty much meant that it did not take long before the two of them where almost directly over the enormous fleet of ships, that by now had about ten or fifteen Windams in the air.

Yet that number was very quickly reduced. When Kira began disarming one mobile suit after another. While Dearka stayed a bit in the background taking care of all the leftovers.

But they did not fight like that for long. Before Kira almost brought the Freedom to a complete hold.

And was now slowly moving his highly confused gazes, over all the ships that was gather beneath him. There was something really strange going on. For some reason he could not shake the feeling. That there was somebody nearby that he knew quite well.

Yet it took him a few seconds to figure out who exactly it was that gave him these familiar feelings. And even then he was having a bit of a hard time believing that the person he saw as his big brother was around here somewhere. Yet no matter what he could clearly sense his present down there somewhere.

"What is this? Are you really here Mu?" The brown haired teen softly asked himself. Still trying to figure out where precisely the source of these emotions was coming from.

But as luck would have it. He did not get much time to do that. Before Dearka's loud voice suddenly interrupted his thoughts about the blond hair man, they had all thoroughly believed had sacrificed his life two years ago at Jachin Due.

"KIRA! What the hell are you doing? If you continue hanging around there without doing anything, you are going to be shoot down!" The blond haired teen yelled.

Just as he got down in front of the Freedom. Continuously shooting off his beam rifle, at a small group of approaching mobile suits that had made the bold decision to try and take out the Freedom, since it had stopped moving.

Hearing his friend's somewhat harsh words. Kira finally got his attention back to where it needed to be, the battle.

"I'm sorry about that Dearka. I just had something on my mind!" He explained, while lifting the left arm to make the shield take a few shots from a incoming Windam.

Yet as he was doing that Dearka carefully took aim and planted one well placed shot in it's head area. Blinding the white mobile suit completely.

But even as he was doing that. Kira hurried moved past him, and once more used to mutually target lock system. Which was more then enough to disable all the rest of the mobile suits nearby.

"I don't really get what the heck you could be thinking about at a time like this. But I do hope you will tell me about it once this is over, now lets hurry and get over to the Minerva and help that ship out!" Dearka yelled.

Then got the Murasame over in to it's mobile armor mode, and took of towards the fighting that was still going on over by the grey Zaft ship.

With the Freedom gundam following not far behind him. The two of them did however not get very far. Before they noticed two of the Zaft mobile suits busy chasing around something that apparently was hiding out down in the water.

"You take care of the gundam. I'll handle the other one!" Dearka yelled loudly. Not giving Kira the opportunity to say anything back.

Before he made a small change in his direction. So now he was now heading straight towards the yellow mobile suit, that was obviously a bit surprised by his sudden appearance.

Yet before it could do anything to counterattack. Dearka got the light blue Murasame back over in it's mobile suit mode.

And without wasting anytime he slammed the beam saber out after the GOUF, hoping to cut it's head straight off. But before he could actually accomplish that small task. The other machine hurried got it's shield up to defend itself.

"Damn! I didn't expect that, this guy is much faster then I first thought" he quietly mumbled to himself.

Just before he quickly backed away from the yellow Zaft machine. Not realizing that it was one of his dear old friends. That was piloting the mobile suit in front of him.

He did however not get anytime to figure that out. Before he saw the GOUF pull out it's own close combat weapon.

And not totally keen on finding out what that weapon could do to his Murasame. He got ready to fight again, which meant that it did not take long before the two mobile suit slammed their weapons together.

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At the same time not that far away from the two fighting friends. Kira broke through a small group made up of five different kinds of mobile suits. Leaving them either headless or armless.

Yet even true one of them where trying to slow him down. He continued heading straight towards the Impulse gundam, that was still mostly occupied with the mobile suit down in the water.

But as he pulled out the right beam saber and got ready to remove a few parts on the Strike like gundam. Somebody apparently gave the pilot of the machine a small warning that made him turn around and fire off a few shots at him.

Which made Kira narrow both of his eyes a bit. While using the shield to take care of the first beam.

And when it actually seemed like the second shot was going to hit one of the Freedom's legs. He easily manoeuvred the gundam up over the attack, just as he saw the other mobile suit reach up after it's own saber.

Seeing his opponent do that. Kira hurried increased the Freedom's speed. And before the other gundam could even get it's hand around the saber.

He quickly swung his close combat weapon forward and disconnect the Impulse's right arm from the machine itself, making the vital part of the other mobile suit fall in to the ocean.

And truly satisfied with the knowledge that he wouldn't have to go up against the Strike look-alike. He kept on going onward a bit further until he let the two rail cannons unfold, and fired them a few times in to the ocean.

Obviously trying to hit the Abyss. That was hiding out just below the ocean surface, like it had done through most of the battle.

Yet it only took a couple of shots before the few people that was watching this. Saw a few minor explosion come out of the water, which made it pretty clear that the Freedom had succeed in at least making some damage, on the blue mobile suit down there.

Once that was over and done with. He took of again towards another fight, not knowing that the person that was his best friend was currently trying everything to get in contact with him.

"Kira what are you doing here!" Athrun yelled loudly.

While he kept on trying to find just the right canal. That would enable him to ask Kira some of the many questions, that was slowly making their way through his head at this very moment.

Unfortunately there was way to much interference in the area, for him to find the exact frequency he knew Kira and Dearka had to be using.

So after using a few more seconds to try and get in contact with the Freedom. He couldn't stop himself from slamming his hand in to the side of the cockpit.

"Ahh damn it all! This isn't getting me anywhere!" He mumbled angrily. As he turned and looked over at the Duel Rouge, seriously considering trying to get over to that machine, so he could have a talk with his fiancé.

Yet the logical part of his mind quickly remind him. That heading for the Duel Rouge could quite easily be mistaken as an attempt to attack Cagalli, by his two friends out there. And everybody else on board the Archangel.

"There is no way for me to get in contact with any of them now!" He said. Watching with big eyes as the Archangel fired both of it's Valiants in to the water directly in front of one closet warship that was trying hastily to get in range of the Minerva.

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Athrun however was not the only one totally confused about the Archangel's actions.

More then a few people around the battlefield was having a tough time figuring out the meaning to all of this.

"I really don't understand it captain! Why in the world is that ship and it's mobile suits assisting us?" Arthur asked in a truly bewilder tone. As he and everybody else up there watched the Freedom disabling a few more mobile suits.

It really was quite impressive how quickly that gundam had reduced the numbers of enemy mobile suits out there.

Not really knowing what to tell the man. Talia just sat there quietly as the white space ship scared a minor squadron of Murasames away from them.

"Well to tell you the truth Arthur, I don't get either. It would seem like that the sole reason why they are here. Is simply because they want to put a stop to this battle" she said, Not doing a thing to hide how puzzling the Archangel's actions was in her eyes.

It just didn't make any sense to her at all. First they had completely destroyed the Tannhauser. And now they where doing everything they could to keep the Orb and Earth Forces' mobile suits away from them.

"But no matter what their purpose for being here is. I guess we should at least be a little grateful for their help" she said in a deep thoughtful tone.

Not once moving her eyes away from the screen that showed them all, what exactly the Archangel was doing to distract the few mobile suits that somehow survive the Freedom's onslaught.

Amazingly enough even while carrying out that one task. The white ship somehow manage to keep a great amount of the many warship out there away from them too.

Still feeling somewhat bewilder about all of this. Arthur slowly turned his gaze away from the woman behind him, and back up at the screen that was showing video footages of what the Archangel was doing out there.

He knew that the captain was right. They really should be somewhat grateful for the assistance they where given by the other ship.

But a small part of him couldn't help but blame, the Archangel for all the trouble they where in right now.

If they hadn't smash up the Tannhauser in the first place. They could most likely have been out of the area a long time ago, instead of relying on the help from a bunch of strangers.

And with those thoughts in mind he took another glance back at Talia.

"Well maybe they are giving us a hand right now. But when I think about all the damage they did to the Minerva, I'm pretty certain that it wouldn't be wise for us to trust them anytime soon!" He said in a serious voice.

Using a few minor seconds to try and figure out how much time it would take before the Minerva was as good as new after everything that had happened to it.

Going over everything Arthur had just said.

Talia finally nodded a few times in agreement. "You are right Arthur! The information we got about them is quite limited right now. So it would definitely be wise for us to keep a close eye on them in the future, until we can confirm their real intentions!" She said. Seriously considering asking Athrun and Nicol if they knew anything about the Archangel's true goal.

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Meanwhile back outside Kira was hastily approaching dry land. Where he could easily see a four legged black gundam going up against another mobile suit.

But once they noticed his present. They almost immediately cease trying to destroy each other.

And was now turning their attention up towards him. Seeing both of them do that, he hurried took aim at the Gaia's head. Determined to disable that one first so it wouldn't be a threat to the other machine.

Yet before he could get even one shot off. The orange mobile suit quickly left the ground and was now coming straight at him.

Shooting of it's beam gun the entire time, so with no real choice in the matter. He made the decision to cripple that mobile suit first, so after evading in a out between a few of it's attacks.

He reached over and took a hold on the right beam saber.

And after evading another attack. He flew full speed at the still attacking mobile suit.

And when it actually seemed a bit like he was about to past the GOUF. He didn't waste anytime in pulling out the saber and removing the right arm of the orange mobile suit.

Immediately realizing what had just happened. Heine took a quick glance down at the missing arm.

"Damn it you bastard! Who the hell do you think you are showing up like this from out of nowhere! And attacking all of us like this!" The orange haired man asked loudly. While letting the sword drop out from within the shield.

And just as it seemed like the weapon was going to fall in to the ocean. He hurried reach down and wrapped his remaining hand around it. So knowing that he was now again ready to have one more go against the Freedom.

Heine got a completely determined expression on his face, as he turned around and looked out at the white gundam.

Yet as he was doing that.

Kira had all of his attention turned downwards towards the Gaia. "I better hurry up and disable that one too!" The male Yamato muttered. And was just about to fire of the two two rail cannons at the black gundam.

But before he could fire the weapons even once.

The Gaia hastily took off from the ground, and was now heading directly up towards him, with it's two beam blades out and ready to strike. And realizing that he was still quite close to the orange mobile suit.

Kira immediately took off to meet the Gaia mid way. And just as the two gundams was about to make contact with each other.

The brown haired teen hurried slammed the right arm in from the side. And used the beam saber to cut both front legs of the BuCUE like mobile suit, making it crash quite hard down in to the ocean below them.

Unfortunately he didn't get much time to try and regain his breath after that.

When he suddenly noticed that the orange mobile suit was once more coming at him, holding on to a beam sword with it's remaining hand. And not all that keen on getting hit by that. He hurried got the Freedom moving again and flew full speed straight up to avoid the attack.

Yet just as he did that, two shots was fired up after him from the Gaia.

And seeing as he was already quite far away from his last position. Something else was hit by the Gaia's attack instead.

So just as Kira turned around and was about to fire off a few shots at the threat located on the ground. His eyes widen slightly when he noticed the orange mobile suit blowing up, killing whoever was inside the Zaft machine.

He did however not get much time to be shocked over that. When he saw the Gaia leap up from the ground now once again coming straight towards him.

Yet even true he still somewhat shaken up by what had happened to the orange mobile suit. He hurried made a small manoeuvre to the right.

And smashed the shield with as much force as possible in to the side of the Gaia. Once more sending the four legged BuCUE like mobile suit falling towards the sea.

Yet just when it seemed like the Gaia was about to make quite the impact down there. A certain green gundam flew in and caught the four legged machine. Just as the Earth Forces fleet fired off a retreat signal.

So after making certain that both of them where now gone. Kira slowly turned and looked down at the sad remains of the orange mobile suit.

And after watching it for a few minor seconds. He slowly moved his eyes over on the red gundam, that had been following him around through most of the battle.

Truly wondering why that one hadn't even tried to attack him yet.

Everybody in the area had pretty much seen him as an opponent from the start of this whole mess. Yet for some strange reason that mobile suit hadn't done anything hostile towards him.

"I'm truly sorry about what happened to your friend" he said sadly. Even true he knew that the pilot of the red gundam couldn't hear him.

After that he hurried turned around. And began making his way back towards the Archangel.

That was clearly getting ready to leave the area. He did however not fly around for long before he spotted Dearka that was also on his way back to the white space ship. His Murasame now missing it's left leg after his battle with the yellow GOUF.

And even true the two friends was now flying beside each other.

None of them said anything as they escorted the Archangel out of the area, with a big bunch of totally shocked people looking after them.

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Yet as the Archangel and it's four mobile suits was leaving the now somewhat quiet battlefield.

Athrun was sitting in the Saviour looking sadly at the remains of Heine's mobile suit. He was really having a tough believing that he had just witness yet another one of his friends getting killed.

"Heine...you...I'm...!" He mumbled while looking out after the Freedom, that by now was flying beside the Archangel. Yet even true he already knew that it hadn't been Kira that had killed Heine.

A small part of him was blaming him for this. If he and the others hadn't interfered like this, Heine would properly still be among the living.

So after glaring a bit more after the Freedom he couldn't stop himself from angrily growling out his childhood friend's name. "Kira! Why did you do all of this? How could you think that interfering like this was a good idea?" He asked. Feeling quite displeased that there was not a soul nearby, that could give him some answers to any of these questions.

And after hanging there for a long time just looking at the destroyed GOUF below him. He slowly turned and began heading back to the Minerva. Still thinking about the friend he had just lost. And the person he was blaming for the lose itself.

"Heine...this was not suppose to happen" he said in a truly depressed tone.

While the pictures of how Heine had gotten killed, continued floating slowly around inside his sad mind.

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Meanwhile down on the John Paul Jones.

Neo Roanoke was feeling somewhat annoyed that they hadn't succeed in taking the Minerva out. Even with all the damage the Freedom and the light blue Murasame had made on the ship.

Yet even true that honestly did bother him greatly. There was something else he just couldn't get out of his mind.

For some reason when the Freedom had been directly over his ship, he could shake away those strangers feelings that there was somebody inside that mobile suit he was suppose to know.

And that wasn't the only thing he couldn't figure out. For some reason a small part of him had actually felt happy, about seeing both the Archangel and the Freedom.

The whole matter was just so completely ridiculous. Why the heck was he pleased about seeing a ship that was obviously their enemy. It just didn't make any kind of sense to him at all.

So after using a few more seconds to sulk and trying to make at least some sense of his emotions. He slowly stood up from his seat.

"I'm going down to see, how the kids are doing. All three of them took quite a big beating out there" he said. Then left the bridge before any of the crew members up there had the opportunity to say anything back to him.

To be continued.

Hey guys one thing I always found a bit weird in destiny is that Kira can sense both Rey and 'Neo'. While Neo on the other hand can only sense Rey. So in my story 'Neo' can also sense when Kira is nearby.

Another thing the serial number I gave the Duel Rouge is not the same one as the Strike Rouge. So if there is another mobile suit out there with that number then please tell me and I will change it.

By the way do not forget to review now.


	26. Chapter 26

I have honestly been a little disappointed by the lack of reviews the last few chapters have gotten. You guys do realize that I might update a little fast if you wrote at least one or two reviews.

Chapter 26

It was the day after the Archangel crew had finally left their hiding place back at Scandinavia.

And even true the ship was full of activity, there was a certain brown haired girl that was still sleeping peacefully in her bed.

Yet once she got disturb by a few loud voices going past her room. Mayu Ramius slowly opened her tired eyes, and looked up at the ceiling.

Feeling somewhat unhappy that she couldn't have stayed asleep at least a bit longer. Yet as she turned over in a minor attempt to return back to dreamland, her small stomach made a sound that could only be interpret as a sign that it wanted some breakfast soon.

And even true she would actually had prefered to stay in her nice warm bed.

She knew that there was just no way for her to fall back asleep now. "Ah man, that's just not fair, I don't want to get up yet!" She complained unhappily, while slowly sitting up on her soft comfortable resting place.

Yet even as she swung both of her legs over the bedside. She was somewhat cautious about where she put her two bare feet.

Seeing as her entire room pretty much looked like a warzone right now. And she really didn't want to step on the many toys and mangas that laid spread out all over the floor.

It was only when she reached the door of her room. That she realized that it was properly a good idea to turn on the light, before she actually ended up tripping over all of her mess.

"Where is that stupid light switch?" She asked herself.

Just as she found the very thing she had been looking so intensely for, which meant that it was only a few seconds before her room was fill by a soft light.

And after getting her still tired eyes use to the light, she took a small look around her room. "Hm it's a pretty good thing mom hasn't seen this, she would be telling me none stop to clean up in here. And that's just so annoying and boring" the brown haired girl said to herself, while seriously wondering just how long she could keep all of this mess a secret from her own mother.

She did however not get long to think about that before her stomach again made a big growling sound.

"I better hurry down to the mess hall. I'm so hungry right now, I just hope that the chef made something really delicious like pancakes or waffles" she said. Slowly licking her lips a single time, as she thought about how tasty food like that was.

And still daydreaming about what her breakfast could consist of, she looked down at the floor to find the easiest way through all the mess.

So after using a little time on that simply task.

She began carefully making her way over to her closet. And once she finally reached her destination, she slowly used her right foot to push away the few toys that was preventing her from opening the closet.

After that was over and done with, the brown haired girl carefully reached out and got ready to open the deathtrap. She knew that there was just as many things stuff away in there as there was on the floor. And she really didn't want all of the toys and books in there to fall down over her, that could definitely hurt.

So once she was completely mentally prepared, she hurried slammed the closet door opened and jumped backwards, just badly saving herself from getting hit by the many objects that came falling out of the deathtrap.

"Ahhh man how annoying! Now there is even more things messing up my floor. I can badly get around in here any longer!" She complained from her spot back on her bed, as she slowly looked over the many new things that had left the closet not all that long ago.

Yet even as she was sitting there doing that her eyes land on the set of clothes she wanted to wear today.

Unfortunately with so much stuff laying around in there. It was going to be pretty tough getting over to the clothes. "I really need some kind of brilliant strategy to get all the way over there!" She said. Actually making it sound a bit like the clothes was hundreds of kilometers away from her, and that she had to walk all the way through a desert to get them.

Yet after sitting there for a few minutes coming up with some kind of idea. She once more step out in the smaller minefield, that used to be her room. And even true it was quite hard getting over to the set of clothes she wanted, she actually did manage to do it eventually.

"Maybe I should really consider cleaning up in here...!" She said, while slowly pulling the clothes out from under the many toys.

And once that minor task had successfully been carried out. She took a quick glance around the warzone.

"Naah! There is no need to do something that drastic, besides it's not like a little mess has ever hurt anybody before!" She determinedly told herself, with a small smirk on her face, as she began making her way back to her bed.

Which was pretty much the only object located in her room. That wasn't covered up by toys, mangas and even more clothes.

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It was about ten minutes later when Mayu finally stepped out of her room, rubbing the small bump on her head.

Even true she had been careful leaving her bed again after getting dressed. She had ended up falling over a zombie like doll when she had reached the door. But even true it did hurt slightly. She was still quite determined not to clean up in there unless her mother told her to do so.

So after massaging the bump a bit longer she began making her way to the mess hall. Now thinking hard about what she was suppose to do today.

Maybe she could ask either big brother Kira or big brother Dearka to play a few video games with her. She just hoped that the two of them weren't to busy to spend a little time with her.

And perhaps after beating those two in a few fighting games, she could head up to the bridge and ask her mother if she wanted to take a small dip in the hot spring together with her.

She really did love playing around in there. Even true she had been told more then a few times, that the hot spring was meant as a place the crew could go to relax after a hard day of work.

Yet that had not prevent her from starting up a few minor water fights in there against big sister Cagalli. That much to her small delight was always ready to fight back, which was truly an entertaining thing in her eyes.

Unfortunately it was a bit hard to get big sister Lacus to join them. For some odd reason every time she asked her if she wanted to join them.

She would pretty much always say that she would take one later. Which was actually a bit strange she wasn't normally that antisocial. And after the third she had said no to join them. Mayu had asked quite loudly why she wouldn't join them for a small bath.

Yet she hadn't really gotten any kind of answer, the only thing the pink haired girl had done was get a small blush on her face, while taking a small glance over at her husband.

After that she had said some stupid crap, about how she would properly understand once she got a bit older. Which had only served to confuse her that much more.

Even true she was now having her suspicion about why big sister Lacus would always refuse to join them.

"Maybe if she is down in the mess hall. I should ask her about it one more time!" The brown haired girl said. While taking a look around the somewhat deserted hall.

For some reason the Archangel seemed much more quite and peaceful then normal. But perhaps that was because her mother and uncle Waltfeld had decided to let everybody get some rest after that battle yesterday.

She might not have been directly involved in anything that had been going on around the ship, while they had been out of the ocean. But even she had felt somewhat exhausted after they had finally left the Dardanelles channel or whatever that place had been call.

And just thinking about how tired she had felt yesterday evening, was more then enough to make her yawn.

As she turned around the corner and enter the mess hall. Where she was kinda expecting to see at least a few people in there. But much to her minor disappointment the whole place was pretty much empty.

"Am I actually the only person on this ship, that doesn't want to spend an entire day staying cooped up in my room?" She asked with a great deal of unhappiness in her tone.

Yet she did not get long to sulk around like that. Before she saw the lead chef on the Archangel coming out of the kitchen, with a friendly smile on his face, that was more then enough to tell her that he was in a good mood.

"Good morning little miss, I was beginning to think you wouldn't come down here today" He told her in a kind tone.

Blinking a few times in confusion. Mayu slowly turned her head a bit to the side. "And why is that, I'm always hungry when I wake up" She explained. Doing nothing to hide that she was quite puzzled over what the head-chef had just said to her. Why was it all of a sudden so weird, that she wanted some breakfast after getting out of her bed.

It just didn't make much sense to her.

It did however not take long, before the chef explained to her why it was a bit of a surprise to see her. "Yeah well little miss the reason why I didn't expected to see you today is because it's twelve o'clock in the afternoon. And you are not usually that kind of person that sleeps most of the day away" he said, still with that friendly smile on his face.

Hearing him say how late it was. Mayu hurried turned and looked over at the wall clock in there, where she immediately realized that he was right, she truly had slept a big part of the day away.

"Damn, I actually thought I woke up early today, but I guess it's kinda hard to tell being under water like this!" She unhappily grumbled out.

Now that she had been told what time it was. She realized that it could be quite a challenges finding somebody that wasn't hard at work right now, and had the time to entertain her for a couple of hour.

But if nothing else she could always go down to the hangar and play a few pranks on grandpa Murdoch. It certainly had been some time now since she had last done that. And no matter what it never got old seeing the chief engineer mad.

Yet before she could come up with some kind of brilliant scheme that would really get under grandpa Murdoch's nerves.

Her thoughts got interrupted by the only other person nearby. "Now then little miss, are there something special you want for breakfast? With nobody else around I have more then enough time to make whatever you want" the chef told her in a friendly tone. While waiting patiently to hear what kind of meal the captain's daughter wished to start her day with.

And he did not have to wait long before he saw a big smirk appear on the girl's face. "I would really like a big plate of waffles. If it's not too much trouble" the brown haired girl said. Now almost drooling at the thought of having a entire plate of waffles just for herself.

Still smiling kindly at the ship's little hell raiser the chef nodded a single. "All right then waffles it is, you just wait here, then I'll go make a big portion to you immediately" the man explained. Just as he turned around and began making his way back to the kitchen.

Leaving Mayu all by herself, not that she noticed that, she was far too busy at the moment daydreaming about the food that she would soon be eating. Yet as she was sitting there in her own thoughts.

Somebody that smell a great deal of oil enter the mess hall. "Hey chef guy! The soda machine down in the hangar is empty. So could you please go down and fill it sometime soon. It's quite hard work repairing a mobile suit, so one does get the tendency to get a bit thirsty!" Dearka yelled loudly.

Obviously not happy about having to leave the hangar, while he and the other mechanics was busy reassembling his Murasame.

Tightly holding on to her nose. Mayu couldn't help but give Dearka a slightly angry glare.

She really hated the stench of oil, and she quite frankly found it completely disgusting, that he would walk around the ship smelling so badly of it. And especially enter the very place, the entire crew used to eat their meals in.

"You do know big bro that if big sister Miriallia had caught you walking around almost entirely covered up with oil like this, she would most likely have given you a good bump on the head!" Mayu said. Still using two of her fingers to pinch her nose shut, as much as she liked playing games and watching horror movies together with him.

She just couldn't wait until he decided that it was time for him to go back to the hangar, where he clearly belonged right now.

Yet before she could complain any more about the smell. Dearka turned his attention away from the kitchen and over at her. Where he immediately gave her a small yet caring smile.

"Well good morning to you too Mayu! I'm sorry that my new deodorant bothers you so much. But putting a leg back on a mobile suit is quite hard work, and you can't really avoid getting at least a little oil on you!" The Murasame piloted explained.

Just as he picked up the few sodas the chef was handing to him, obviously getting ready to head back down to the hangar.

Using a few seconds to go over everything big brother Dearka had just told her. Mayu nodded a few times in understanding. "Ok I get that, by the way what are the others doing right now? The entire ship seems somewhat empty today!" She asked, while taking a small glance around the mess hall.

Before again moved her eyes back to the only other person present there at the moment.

"Well I think your mother and Mr Waltfeld is up on the bridge properly drinking coffee. And I haven't seen any signs of the married couple today. Yet knowing the two of them, they are most likely back in their room sleeping soundly next to each other!" Dearka explained.

Then began to wonder how long it had been since Miriallia and himself had sleeping in the same bed together.

It had been so many weeks since he had last seen her, and he could honestly say that he had been missing her a lot these last few days. He just hoped that it wouldn't be much longer now, before she would finally be done with that mission she had been out on ever since the whole mess with Junius Seven.

Yet before he could think all that much, about the woman he loved with all of his heart. The brown haired girl beside him, decided to ask what big sister Cagalli was doing right now.

And hearing Mayu ask him that, was more then enough to snap Dearka out of his deep thoughts, about his girlfriend.

"She is down in the hangar messing around with the Duel Rouge. I guess she is a bit frustrated with everything that happened yesterday" he said in a somewhat far away tone, as a few images of the battle they had been in not long ago, made their way through his mind.

Yet as he stood there thinking about his little fight with the yellow GOUF, and how much it bothered him that the pilot of that thing had been able to cut off the left leg on his mobile suit.

Whoever was inside that thing, certainly knew what he was doing.

And no matter how hard he thought about it. He couldn't help but feel like he had seen that somewhat unique fighting style somewhere before, he just couldn't put his finger on why it had seemed so familiar.

Unfortunately before he could give it all that much thought.

Mayu small voice once more interrupted his twirling thoughts. "Perhaps she is feeling depressed right now, because she is missing big brother Athrun!" Mayu said in a slightly sad tone. Seriously thinking about going down to spend some time with big sister Cagalli, once she was done eating her breakfast.

Hearing her say that. Dearka immediately moved his eyes back over on her. "You might be right about that Mayu, it's not always easy being away from a person you love so much, I kinda know how that feels" he said. While Miriallia's smiling face made a small appearance in his mind.

And even true her happy face didn't stay there for long. It once more remind him just how much he missed her.

So after telling Mayu that he would see her later. He quickly turned around and left the the mess hall, without saying anything else to the brown hair girl that kept on watching him until he was completely out of sight.

"I guess there is a lot of people on board, that are missing their loved once" she mumbled to herself.

Just as the chef came back out of the kitchen. Where he immediately placed both a big plate of waffles and a can of juice directly in front of her, telling her to eat up before it got cold.

So after giving the man a small yet grateful thank you, she quickly began devouring the very first waffle.

And seeing as she was pretty much on her own at the moment, she did not bother all that much with the table manners. She had never really been all that interested in sitting up straight while eating her food.

Truth be told, she actually preferred sitting in front of the television while having breakfast, or any other meal for that matter.

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A half hour later Mayu slowly left the mess hall, with a full belly and a satisfied smile on her face.

There was a small part of her that did wonder what her mother was doing at the moment.

But she decided that it might be best to go down to the hangar first to see what big sister Cagalli was up to.

For some reason Mayu couldn't shake the feeling that her blond sister character was lonely right now. And if there was anything she could do to help lessen those feelings, there was no way she wasn't going to do it.

And while still thinking about that.

The youngish of the Archangel's crew members began walking that much faster, which meant that it did not take much time before she arrived at her destination.

Where she immediately noticed grandpa Murdoch and a bunch of other mechanics, busy working on big brother Dearka's Murasame. While a few others was sitting a bit by them themselves poker.

Yet even true Mayu loved playing pranks on the chief engineer. She knew that it was best not to bother him at the moment. He always got twice as mad at her when he and the others was working around with the more heavy equipment.

That one time she had pulled a prank on him while he was working on one of the mobile suit. He had told her that if she ever did something like that again, he would ask the captain to ban her entrance to the hangar.

And she could still clearly remember how sad she had been when he had said that. It was only after her mother had explained to her, that it was most likely because Murdoch was afraid that she would end up getting seriously hurt by some of the more heavy equipment down there, while he and the other mechanics wasn't paying attention to her.

And after hearing her mother say all of those clever words. It hadn't taken long for her to realize, that the engineer had nothing against having her down there. He was only trying to protect her.

So once she had finally figured out why he had been so angry, she had immediately returned to the hangar and apology to the man.

Yet he had just given her a caring smile, while at the same time messing up her brown hair. Then told her that she was always welcome down here, just as long as she remembered to be careful.

So after watching the blue haired man work and yell at the other mechanics a tiny bit longer. Mayu began making her way over to the Duel Rouge that for some strange reason actually looked a bit lonely right now. There was not even a single mechanic near the grey mobile suit, which pretty much meant that it didn't take long before she reach the cockpit, where she didn't hesitate even a second about taking a look inside.

Where the first thing she saw was her blond sister character fast asleep. And just seeing that weird way she was sitting right now, was more then enough for Mayu to know that once Cagalli woke up again, she was going to have a very sore neck and back.

And with that in mind she slowly reach out and gave Cagalli a gently push in an attempt to wake her up.

Unfortunately she didn't really have much luck with that. The only thing Cagalli did was turn over, and get in to an even more uncomfortable position inside the mobile suit.

Seeing her do that.

Mayu couldn't help but blink a few times. It actually was a bit amazing that Cagalli was able to sleep down here at all, there was just so much noise going through the hangar right now.

That it was more then a little unbelievable that person was able to relax enough down here to fall asleep. But one look at her big sis face was more then enough to tell Mayu, that Cagalli hadn't gotten much sleep last night and that she was completely exhausted.

So still with her eyes turned towards Cagalli's face. Mayu again reached in to the Duel Rouge and gave the blond girl an even harder push.

This time calling out her name too. That however was still not enough to wake Cagalli up the only thing she did, when she heard Mayu's voice call out to her was turn over mumbling something that sound very much like just five more minutes.

And just hearing Cagalli say that, was pretty much all that was need to make a small yet displeased look ran over Mayu's face.

How the heck could she continue sleeping like that even with her calling out her name like this. So after spending a few more seconds just watching the person inside the Duel Rouge.

Mayu took a couple of deep breaths, as she got ready to unless her ultimate wake fast asleep people up technician.

"BIG SISTER CAGALLI! WAKE THE HELL UP ALREADY! YOU CAN'T SLEEEP THE WHOLE DAY AWAY!" The brown haired girl pretty much screamed in to the gundam's cockpit.

Which needless to say was more then enough to make Cagalli fly up full speed. And almost hit her head on the small ceiling inside her mobile suit.

And it was only after using two whole minutes to get over the minor shock that she finally noticed the person that had just taken the record in giving her the most loud awaking ever. And after just sitting there for a short while.

Just looking at Mayu with a tiny glare in both of her eyes, she took a deep breath. "Mayu! Please promise me not to yell like that ever again. You almost gave me a heart attack, and I am pretty sure that there is a few fish outside of the ship that is wondering what's going on!" Cagalli said in a somewhat tired voice.

Then she slowly moved her hand up and rubbed a tiny bit of sweat away from her forehead.

Smiling a bit innocently at the older girl. Mayu began talking in a tone that almost made it seem like she hadn't done anything wrong. "Well big sister. I just wanted to make sure you didn't hurt your back sleeping inside the Duel Rouge like this, that way you where sitting did look kinda uncomfortable" she explained, still keeping up that sweet look on her face.

Hearing the brown hair girl say those words. Cagalli slowly lift her right eyebrow, not doing a thing to hide that she didn't really believe a word of what Mayu had just said. So after just sitting there for a few seconds looking at her Cagalli let out a small breath.

"Wow that's very considerate of you Mayu. But what's the real reason you came down here to find me?" She asked, while yawning slightly.

Still smiling brightly at her blond big sister character. Mayu didn't waste any time in telling Cagalli the reason why she had woken her up. "Heh! Can't really pull a fast one on you sis. But never mind that I was wondering if you wanted to go down to the hotspring together with me? It's just so boring sitting down there without having anybody to talk to!" She asked, with a look in her eyes that made it pretty clear that she was really expecting Cagalli to go with her down there.

Thinking a few seconds about what Mayu had just asked her.

Cagalli could easily tell from the girl's expression, that she would be quite disappointed if she didn't accompany her down to the hotspring.

Yet now that she was really, giving it some serious thought. She realized that both of her shoulders and her back did feel somewhat sore right now, and knowing that the hot water could properly help a bit on that.

She slowly nodded yes to what Mayu was asking of her, then began getting ready to get out of the Duel Rouge. She really had been in there for quite a long time now.

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A short while later both of the women slowly descend down in to the nice hot water. Each of them letting out a deep contented sigh, as they sat there feeling some of the deep stress leaving their tired bodies.

It just felt so nice being able to relax like this, and not having to worry about anything. And seeing as they where the only once present in there, things was just so nice and peaceful.

Yet after sitting there for about five minutes. Mayu slowly opened her eyes and looked over at the other girl, that was obviously enjoying having the time to loosen up a bit in the hot water.

Yet the youngish of the two women could easily tell that, there was still something bothering Cagalli a great deal. "Big sis are you all right? You seem kinda low spirited right now. Is it that purple haired Seiran idiot that is make you this depressed?" She asked. Showing openly just how much she despised Yuna and the rest of his stuck-up family.

Hearing Mayu asked her that. Cagalli slowly opened her eyes and looked over at the brown hair girl, that was watching her with an expression on her face that made clear that she wanted an answer to her question about the Seirans.

And not able to find a logical reason not to tell the other girl, what was making her feel so depressed right now.

Cagalli turned her eyes away from the other girl and up towards the ceiling. "It's not just the Seirans Mayu. It's mostly because I have been missing Athrun a lot these last few days, I just can't help but wonder what he is doing right now. It's just been such a long time since I last saw him" the blond woman said.

Thinking about how the man she loved had kneel down in front of her, and asked her to marry him.

Which was actually one more of those things that had been bothering her a lot these last few days. They where engaged now. Yet for some weird inexplicable reason they had not seen each other since he proposed to her.

And that was in her eyes somewhat wrong, wasn't a newly engaged couple suppose to be together all the time. Kinda like the same way Kira and Lacus would from time to time be sticking to each other like glue.

Yet even true she could quite honestly admit she found it a bit annoying when her brother and his wife was behaving all lovey-dovey in her presented.

She did knew that there was a small part of her that was feeling a tiny bit jealous. She kinda wanted to hang all over Athrun, in the same manner Lacus would always find an excuse to embrace and kiss Kira in her own sweet little ways.

Unfortunately she did not get much time to daydream about what she wished Athrun and her could do. Before the other person in the hot water interrupted her giddy thoughts.

"I'm sure he will come back to you sooner or later big sis. You do know that he cares a lot about you" Mayu said in a soft voice. As she sat there thinking about how nice a couple she thought Cagalli and Athrun was.

In her eyes the two of them where really meant to be, they where just so incredibly cute together. Which kinda made her hope, that once she was old enough to start dating she would be able to find just as nice a guy as Athrun.

Hearing Mayu say that a small smile ran over Cagalli's face. "I knows he cares about me Mayu. But I really want to be together with him right now. Not hidden away at the bottom of the ocean, wondering where in the world he could be at this very moment!" The blond girl explained. As her fiancée handsome face slowly made it's way through her mind.

Thinking a bit about what Cagalli had just told her, a slightly sad look appeared in Mayu's eyes. "I'm sorry that I can't help you with that at all big sis. I just wanted to make you feel a little better about what happened yesterday. I thought that was why you where so sad!" The brown haired girl said, as she turned her sad gaze down towards the steamy water.

Smiling a bit at the other girl's thoughtfulness.

Cagalli reached over and gave Mayu's hand a light reassuring squeeze. Which was all that was needed to get Mayu to once more turn her attention back towards the blond girl.

"Believe me Mayu you are making me feel a little better. It's truly nice having somebody to talk with about all of this, other then you and Lacus there ain't many people here on the Archangel I feel comfortable talking with, about how much I miss Athrun!" Cagalli told her, before she descended a little deeper in to the water.

Making it so, that the only thing that could still be seen now, was her head.

Truly happy to know that she was helping out one of those people she cared so much about. An enormous delightful smile immediately show up on Mayu's young face, as she too got a bit more comfortable in the water.

"I'm glad to help out sis! If you ever need somebody to talk with about Athrun, I'm always ready to listen no matter what!" Mayu said in a loud determined tone.

Letting out a light chuckle at Mayu's eagerness to help her, the smile that was already on Cagalli's face grew a tiny bit bigger. As she looked over at the brown haired girl with a truly grateful expression on her face.

"Thank you very much for saying that Mayu, that's very really sweet of you to say. I'll try my best to remember that in the future!" She promised. Just as she duck her head under the water in an attempt to get her hair clean.

Seeing that her blond sister character was in a better mood now. Mayu immediately got a somewhat satisfied look on her face. She was truly pleased that she had been able to help one of the people she cared so much about getting in a better mood.

With everything that had happened yesterday, she had felt a tiny bit useless. So she was really, really happy that she had finally been able to do something useful.

And now that she was really thinking about it, she decided that once Cagalli and her got out of the hot spring she would go down to Lacus' and Kira's room to see how those two where doing.

She truly wanted to do her best to help everybody on the Archangel out. Yet as she sat there with those thoughts going through her young mind.

Cagalli's head once more appear from the water. Where she immediately reached up and removed the hot liquid from her eyes. Before she again gave Mayu a small yet caring smile.

"By the way Mayu! I have been wondering how do you like living here on the Archangel?" The blond girl asked in a slightly curious tone.

Hearing her ask that. The brown haired girl got a somewhat thoughtful gaze in her eyes, as she sat there thinking about the answer to the question big sister Cagalli had just asked her.

Yet it did not really take her many seconds to figure out what she wanted to say.

"Hmm I actually like it a lot. It's just so cool seeing all of those different coloured fish swimming around just outside of the Archangel. It's almost like we are inside a giant's aquarium!" She said. Doing nothing to hide how excited she was about being down in the ocean like this.

And one look at her face, made it quite clear that she wouldn't really mind staying down here for God knows how long.

Yet even true Cagalli was somewhat relieved that the brown haired girl was ok with being down here for such a long time. There was one thing in her last sentence that actually freaked her out a bit.

"Ok I'm glad you are all right down here Mayu. But I honestly don't like the thought about being inside a giant's aquarium, that's actually a bit scary if you ask me!" Cagalli said. Then used a moment or two to imagine, just how it would be having some enormous creepy giant watching them, while they where hiding out down here.

Blinking a few times at that. Mayu slowly looked back over at Cagalli, with a weird expression on her face. That made it quite obvious that the more childish part of her found the whole idea about the giant very amusing.

"Maybe once we are done in here, we should go see if he is out there somewhere!" The youngish of the two women said in a tone. That was more then enough to tell Cagalli that she was actually completely serious about going giant hunting once they left the hot spring.

Yet even true Cagalli did find this entire discussion a tiny bit creepy. She quickly realized that it was most likely Mayu's enormous love for horror movies that made her dream about having some kind of monster just outside of the ship.

And not really too keen on continuing this conversation. She did the only thing she could think of to get Mayu's thoughts over on something else.

She used her right hand to splash a bit of water straight in to the other girl's face.

"If you really want to talk about monsters like this Mayu. You should really go find Dearka, he actually likes stuff like that" the blond haired woman said. As she once more throw some water after the horror movie fan.

Getting hit by the squirt of water in the middle of her face, a small yet very unhappy glare appeared in each of Mayu's brown eyes, as she slowly moved her hands out of the warm water.

And without hesitating even a second she used them as weapons to splash a bit of the water back at Cagalli.

Which pretty much meant that it did not take long. Before the hot water was slowly running down the blond haired woman's face.

And not really one to just sit there quietly and let Mayu throw water on her like that. It did not even take a minute before the two girls where engaged in a completely out of scale water fight.

That was only brought to a hold when two other female crew members enter the bath area, which had made both of them feel so utterly embarrassed, that they could not continue on with their childlike behaviour in there.

And without saying a single word to the two other women. They quickly left the hot spring area.

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It was about a later after leaving the hot spring.

Mayu Ramius was once more walking down one of the Archangel's halls. It hadn't been long since, big sister Cagalli had decided to go back to her own room to get a fresh set of clothes.

Which had left Mayu all on her own. So after thinking a few minutes about it. The girl had made the decision, to go down and see what the married couple was up to.

She still haven't seen any signs of the two of them today.

And she was really starting to wonder what they could be doing. Yet she hadn't been walking for long before she saw her favourite pink robot coming jumping down the hall.

"Mayu! Mayu! We got A PROBLEM!" Haro yelled out loudly. Just as he landed directly in front of her, where he immediately began rolling back and forth, shouting out a bunch of nonsense that was somewhat hard to understand.

Yet seeing as Mayu was quite use to the small robot. She just let out a small giggle, while she hurried reached out and caught him. Just as he was about to continue on his path down the mostly empty hall.

"Why hello Mr Pink! What are you doing out here on your own? What is big sister Lacus and Kira doing right now?" She asked in a kind tone.

No matter how much time went by, she always enjoyed playing with Haro. He was just so fun having around, and he had already proven more then once that he was pretty useful, when she was out pulling pranks on grandpa Murdoch.

He could after all unlock most of the doors around the ship. Which had provide her with a great deal of good hiding places, when the chief engineer was really, really cranky about some of the things she had done.

And just thinking about how much help Haro had given her up until now, was more then enough to make her consider asking either big brother Athrun or big brother Kira to make her one of the small robots.

It truly would be great having a Haro that was her's alone. And perhaps if she was really lucky they could make an even more advances one then the once big sister Lacus had.

Just the whole idea about having a Haro that could be used as a television remote, that would always come when she call on it. Was more then enough to make a big smirk ran over her face.

"I just have to remember that idea for my birthday. If I'm fortune enough I just might be free from searching for that stupid old remote again" the girl said in a far away tone, and with a dreamy look in each of her eyes, as she continued sitting there on the floor coming up with more and more ideas about just what exactly a Haro could be used for.

It was however only when she started thinking about having some kind of special super Haro, that could vacuum clean an entire house.

That she finally snapped back out of her somewhat crazy thoughts about the small round robots she liked so much, and once more turned her attention back towards her small pink friend. That was still busy talking quite loudly with himself about pretty much everything he could think off.

And just hearing him mindlessly yapping on like that again made a small smile cross over her lips. As brown haired girl began talking to him in the same kind tone she had been using before.

"Instead of sitting around out here all by our self Mr Pink, we should stop wasting time and hurry down to Lacus' and Kira's room! I'm really curious about seeing what they have been doing all day" she told the small robot.

That just looked up at her for a small second. Before he shouted out her name so loud that it could most likely be heard by whatever crew members was nearby.

Not that Mayu cared all that much about how much noise she and Haro was making. She was just delighted, that the pink round robot wanted to keep her company until they reached the married couple's room.

So with nothing else to do there. The brown haired girl stood back up and once more continued onward towards her already decided destination.

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Which meant that it wasn't long after that.

Before Mayu was standing in front of Kira and Lacus' room. Everything seemed pretty peaceful out there, which made her believe that the two of them where still fast asleep in there.

And not finding it fair that those two could sleep the whole day away she knock quite loudly on the door, in an attempt to wake both of them up.

Yet much to her minor surprise she immediately heard Lacus' voice telling her to come in.

And after taking one brief glance down at the round robot she was holding on to with her right hand. She slowly reached out and opened the door, and took a single step in to the room.

Where she saw both Lacus and Kira laying beside each other on their bed, watching an anime series that had only been released on dvd recently.

And seeing the two empty trays on the floor. Mayu realized that the two of them had eaten their breakfast in there. And one look at them where more then enough to tell her, that the young couple wasn't planing to move anytime soon.

"You two really seems to be enjoying yourself" she said, making the two of them look away from the TV screen and over at her.

"Hello Mayu. It's nice to see you" Lacus said in a gentle tone.

Just as she slowly moved away from Kira's secure embrace, and sat up on the bed. Where she immediately stretched both of her arms up over her head, while at the same time yawning slightly. Which made it pretty obvious that the two of them had been laying there on that exact spot through most of the day.

And that none of them had wanting to leave that place anytime soon.

So after watching each of them a bit longer she slowly narrowed her eyes a bit. "Are you two really planing on staying cooped up in this room all day?" She asked.

While looking a few times between them. They both just looked so unbelievable lazy right now, like the only thing that gave their life meaning at the moment was to lay there on that bed watching TV.

Yet it was only when Kira finally moved away from his spot on the bed. That she got a reply to the question she had just asked them. "Well it wasn't really something we had planed on doing Mayu. It just kinda happened" he explained in a somewhat exhausted manner.

While Lacus nodded a few times in agreement. Before she took a small glance over at the television.

The really reason why they hadn't really been out of this room today, was because they had decided to watch one of the more new anime series in there.

Yet the first few episodes had just been so incredibly exciting. And before the two of them could even realized what was happening they had seen the first two dvds and had just started on the third one. When somebody had knocked on the door.

Which had been a bit of a disturbance. Not that any of them mind having Mayu drop by like this.

They did after all both care about the girl a lot. Yet when they saw the somewhat sceptical look she was sending them, they each knew that she really thought their whole reason for being in here was really pathetic.

And after just standing there taking a few more glances between them, she let out a small breath. "It just kinda happened you say. That properly the worst excuse for being lazy I have ever heard!" Mayu said in a slightly loud tone. As she began making her way over to one of the chairs in there.

She might find their reason for wasting an entire day in here kinda lame.

Yet that certainly did not mean she wouldn't join them. She truly did love the ainme series they where watching right now.

So without saying another word to any of them, she slowly dropped down in the soft blue chair, where she pretty much immediately began watching the Japanese cartoon show.

Seeing Mayu do that. And knowing that she was already quite far away watching what was going on in the anime right now. The husband and wife slowly turned and looked over at each other.

And after doing that for a short second. Kira stretched his hand out towards Lacus.

"Want to join me back on the bed miss Yamato?" He asked in a gentle tone.

Just as Lacus reached out and took hold on his offered hand. "Yes that would be nice Mr Yamato" she said, as they both made their way back to the very places they had been resting so peacefully on when Mayu had knocked on the door.

And it took least then a minute, before the married couple was once more laying beside to each other on the bed.

Kira softly holding on to Lacus from behind, as they each turned their attention back towards the television. Watching as one of the main characters was fighting with some strange looking monster.

And even true the series was quite exciting at the moment. The three of them where truly enjoying this quiet and peaceful time together.

It really was nice for them to know that they didn't have anything to worry about the next couple of hours, unless something unexpected happened. Yet as thing where right now that was highly unlikely.

"This is one of my favorite parts" Mayu said in a slightly excited tone. As she watched the hero and the monster, approach each other with great speed. Each of them clearly ready to try and beat the crap out of one another.

Hearing her say that Lacus lifted her head away from her fluffy pillow and looked over at the brown haired girl. "Hmm I prefer the more romantic moments between the two main characters. It's a bit of a shame she is having such a hard time admitting her feelings for him. It would be really great if the two of them became a couple soon" the pink haired girl said in a somewhat dreamy tone.

Thinking a brief moment about everything Lacus had just said.

Mayu nodded slowly in agreement. "Yeah I guess you are right big sis. But to tell you the truth, I honestly do prefer the fight scenes over the romantic once. It's just so cool seeing them fight like that!" The brown haired girl said.

While watching with big eyes, as the hero of the show throw a powerful ice spell down at the monster. Only to get hit straight in the stomach right after, making him fly full speed in to a tree that actually fell over when he made contact with it.

Yet even true that obviously hurt quite a bit. It did not take long before he was once more back on his feet and again heading towards his opponent.

"Ok the fights are kinda nice made. But I still like the more peaceful scenes much better" Lacus said in a slightly thoughtful tone. As she snuggled a bit deeper in to the calm embrace she and her husband was sharing.

And once she felt his grip on her tighten a bit. She turned her head and looked back at him over her shoulder, where she asked in a soft tone what his favorite parts was in this anime.

Not really needing a whole lot of time to come up with an answer to that question. Kira smiled a bit at his lovely wife. Just as he once more turned his attention back towards the television.

"I like the humorous parts best. It's really funny seeing the way they argue from time to time" he said, while thinking about how entertaining it was seeing the two main characters yell loudly at each other for the most ridiculous reason.

He could clearly remember laughing more then a few times, when the two of them really got going.

And just the way she kept on shouting him to be careful against the monster. Was all he need to know, that they would most likely start another argument once this battle was over.

Just a single one look at the green haired female archer's face, was more then enough to tell Kira, that she was getting more and more angry, at the complete reckless way he kept on fighting the strange creature.

So unless he actually got seriously hurt. There was a big possibility that she was going to give him a few more injuries after this.

But for now most of her attention was turned towards helping the hero, beat the crap out of that ugly looking monster, they had been battling through most of this episode.

Yet seeing as the creature could just badly walk straight. It was becoming quite obvious that it wouldn't be long now before this battle was over.

And it was only a short while later when the monster laid dead by the two heros feet.

Yet just when it seemed like the two of them where about to start yelling at each other the ending theme began playing in the background. Which made it pretty clear that this episode was now over.

"That was the last episode on that disc, Kira would you please put in the next one?" Mayu asked in a sweet voice. Which she hoped was enough to get him to leave his comfortable location beside Lacus.

But even true Kira honestly did not want to break the embrace he and his wife was sharing. He slowly moved both of his arms away from her, trying his best not to disturb his pink haired beauty.

And once he got over next to the dvd.

It did not take him long to find third disc and put it in to the machine. After that he turned and slowly made his way back to his wife and soon laying beside her once more, watching as a few trailers began running over the screen.

Which he knew neither of them where all that interested so after searching around a bit he picked up the remote and used it to skip the trailers.

Which meant that it was only took a few seconds before they continued watching the series from where the last dvd had ended.

Each of them letting out a few minor laughs. As the two main characters began arguing loudly, because of the completely reckless way the hero had fought against the now dead monster.

And even true this was definitely not the most exciting episode they had seen. They each truly did enjoy it a lot, but that was mostly because they happened to be seeing it together with a few of those people they genuinely cared about.

But even as the two of them continued yelling at each other like that.

Mayu could not help but think about how great it would be if the rest of her somewhat bizarre little family was there too.

It really had been a long time since they had all been watching TV together. And now that she was seriously giving it some thought. She realized that she was actually starting to miss big sister Miriallia a lot.

Yet before she could really start wondering when she would see the older brown haired girl again, the female archer gave the hero a hard punch in his stomach, while at the same time yelling at him to shut up, while she was busy giving him a scolding.

And just hearing the green haired cool girl said that. Was all that was need to make Mayu giggle slightly.

While she took a brief glance away from the screen and over at the married couple. Where she asked them in a soft tone. which once where their favorite characters in this show.

So while still keeping a close eye on what was happening on the screen. Lacus began telling Mayu, which characters she liked and the reason for it.

And even true the pink haired girl didn't really noticed it.

Mayu did nod a few times in agreement, as she sat there listening closely to everything Lacus was saying. She wasn't nearly as interested in this episode as Kira and Lacus was. Seeing as she had already seen it once before.

And knowing that the two of them, could always watch it again later when she left. She really didn't feel all that bad about disturb them a bit. And neither of them truly seemed to mind all that much talking with her about the anime.

Even true they still kept most of their attention turned towards the television. And only gave her a reply whenever she asked them a question.

To be continued.

The anime series Mayu, Lacus and Kira was watching here at the end of this chapter. Isn't something that really exist, it's just something I made up for this part of the story.


	27. Chapter 27

This chapter goes on at exactly the same time as the last one.

Chapter 27

The pilots of the Minerva was standing not all that far away from the ship, watching as the last of Heine's stuff was put in to the back of a military van.

They each had a somewhat depressed look in their eyes. As the soldier that was loading the car closed the back door then turned over and looked at them, also with a sad look on his face.

"I'll make sure to deliver all of Westenfluss stuff to his family!" He told them.

While taking a look over their depressed expression, which made him feel a bit sorry for them. It really was tough losing a comrade like this, and he could easily tell that they had all liked having Westenfluss around, and that they where each going to miss him a lot.

He did however not get long to feel sorry for them before the blond haired teen took a single step away from the others and over towards him.

"Please do take care of everything, we are sadly counting on you to tell his family the bad news!" Rey said. While giving the man in front of him a small, yet respectful salute.

Even true Rey did not have a family on his own. He could quite easily imagine just how depressing it had to be, going over to somebody's house just to tell them that one of their family members was dead. A task like that was not really one he wanted no matter what.

He had no trouble at all remembering how sad he had been, that time when Gilbert had told him that Rau had been killed at Jachin Due.

Yet before he could give it all that much thought. The man in front of him lifted his hand and gave all of them a small salute back. "I'll be sure to mention to his family that all his comrades are deeply sadden about this incident as well!" He said, while lowing his hand again. And without saying another word to them, he slowly turned away and began making his way back to the car.

So not really knowing what to do at the moment. The only thing the five pilots could do, was stand there and quietly watch, as the black van disappeared around a one of the mobile suit hangars.

Yet it was only when Shinn gave the railing that lead back to the Minerva a hard kick. That the deep almost unbearable silence was brought to a hold.

"Damn it all, I still can't believe he got kill like that. If those fools hadn't interfered like that Heine would still be alive. I'm seriously going to kill that stupid blond bitch the next time I see her!" He said in a loud determined tone.

As he hurried turned around and hastily began heading back towards the open entrance of the grey space ship. Not noticing the slightly angry look the Saviour pilot was sending him.

Athrun might be angry at Cagalli and the others too.

Yet that surely did not mean he could just stand idlely by, when somebody was so openly treating to kill his own fiancée.

And he seriously hope that it would never come to that. If Shinn really did try and kill the woman he loved. Athrun knew without the slightest doubt, that he would do everything to prevent that.

Even if it meant going up against the Impulse pilot. There was just no way in hell, he would ever allow Shinn to ever hurt Cagalli.

He did after all choose to join up with Zaft again, in an attempt to keep the people he loved and cared about out of the war. And also because he thoroughly believed, that the way the Chairman was doing things was the best way to end this whole war.

Yet even so. He still couldn't figure out for what reason Kira and everybody else had thought, it was a wise idea to interfere in yesterday's battle.

He was pretty much sure that at one point in time, they had all heard some of the things the Chairman had said.

So why the heck did they find it necessary to go up against them like they had. Why in the world didn't they assist Zaft in stopping the Earth Forces, and bring an end to all of this meaningless fighting.

It just didn't make any sense to him. Even while hiding out down in the ocean, they should already know quite well, what the Chairman and the rest of Zaft was trying so hard to accomplish.

"I have to find them, I just have to talk with them about all of this, and get them to see the light" he whispered out in a determined tone. Just as the face of everybody he cared about on the Archangel made their way through his deeply puzzled mind.

Yet as he stood there trying to figure out someway to locate the Archangel. Somebody suddenly reached out and placed a hand on his left shoulder, which made him jump slightly as he hurried turned around, and was just about to bate the hand away.

When he realized that the person behind him was properly one of his best friends on the Minerva. And that he didn't have any hostile intentions.

"What is it Nicol?" He asked in a quiet voice, while still thinking hard about the Archangel and her crew.

Smiling a bit at his long time friend.

Nicol Amalfi got a deeply determined look in both of his brown eyes. As he began talking in a tone, that made it completely clear to Athrun, that he was quite serious about everything he was saying.

"If you really are going out there to look for them Athrun, I would like very much to accompany you. There is a few things I would like to talk with them about too!" He explained, as his thoughts wander over to his fight with the light blue Murasame.

It really had been a bit of a miracle, that he had manage to get out of that battle, without any serious damage to his mobile suit. Whoever was piloting that Murasame had without a doubt some very impressive skill in using that machine.

And getting such grand abilities like that in a mobile suit, certainly wasn't something a person would obtain just by using a training simulator.

Which meant that whoever was using that Murasame had most definitely seen live combat. Yet before his mind had the opportunity to get all that far, his thoughts was interrupted by his blue hair friend's sensible voice.

"That's fine I really appreciate your help Nicol. It will without a doubt be much easier to find them, if the two of us works together" Athrun said.

Even true he realized that even with Nicol's assistance it would still be a very difficult task finding one single space ship hiding out down in the ocean. It wasn't like they had all that many clues to follow in the first place.

The only thing they knew for sure was which direction the Archangel had disappeared in. And that wasn't really much help, it could after all had change course more then a couple of times after it had submerged back in to the ocean.

And that pretty much left Athrun and Nicol on the bottom with clues. They really had no idea about where to even start searching for the Archangel.

Yet no matter what they where utterly determined to at the very least try and find the white space ship. It wasn't like it could have completely vanished from the face of the earth. Yet one thing was certain, they couldn't just take off in some random direction and try to find it.

They both knew that the needed to come up with a much more effective way to determined where exactly the Archangel could be.

And with a deep thoughtful expression on his face. Nicol lifted his head and looked over at Athrun. "For now at least, I do believe that it's best that we go back to the Minerva, it's not like we can just take off without telling the captain what we are going to do" the green haired teenage said. While thinking a few seconds about what kind of reaction they would get from the captain, once they told her about their little mission.

Hearing him say that Athrun nodded a few times in agreement.

And so with that decision made. The two friends turned around and began slowly making their way down the small walkway that lead them to the entrance of the enormous grey space ship.

They did however not get all that far. Before Nicol finally got out one of the more important questions, that had been going through his mind the last five minutes.

"By the way Athrun, there is something I have been wanting to ask you about since yesterday. You know that blue Murasame I fought against, do you have any idea about who is inside that thing?" He asked in a somewhat calm tone. Which made it slightly unclear, if he had any kind of suspicion about what the answer was going to be.

Not really all that surprised by his friend's question.

Athrun immediately stopped and just stood there for a few very long moments, with a mostly unreadable look in each of his green eyes. As he tried his best to come up with some kind of reply.

And still with most of his attention turned towards the Minerva. He let out a small breath as he began talking in a somewhat far away tone.

"I'm not entirely sure who was inside that Murasame. But if I had to guess, I would say that it was properly Dearka. I do recall a conversation between him and Erica Simmons about having a Murasame special made for him in those blue colours, just after the first few Murasames had left the assembling line" the blue haired man explained.

While taking a small glance back at Nicol, where he saw him nod slowly in understanding, and with a thoughtful expression on his face. "Hmmm so I really was right in my assumption. His fighting style in that Murasame, hasn't really change all that much, since his days in the Buster" Nicol said, while thinking very thoroughly about how utterly dangerous his old friend had been in the two cannon equipped mobile suit.

And just the entire thought about how skilled, Dearka was in long range combat. Was more then enough to make Nicol decide, that if he was forced to go up against him again.

He would do his upmost to keep the whole thing in close combat. Something he knew from fighting along side Dearka so many times in the past, wasn't really his specialty.

Yet he just hoped that once he and Athrun finally found them. They could somehow convince them to either head on back home to Orb, or perhaps even join forces with them.

Having a ship as powerful as the Archangel on their side, would most definitely help them out a great deal against the Earth Forces.

And now that he was really giving it some serious thought. He had little trouble at all imagining just what the Archangel and the Minerva could accomplish, if they ever where to fight on the same side.

"We should hurry up and get going Athrun. Instead of standing around here wasting our valuable time" Nicol said, as he continued onward towards the Minerva.

Seeing his friend disappear in to the grey space ship.

Athrun took a deep breath, while looking up at the blue afternoon sky. There wasn't really much to see up there other then a few clouds that was slowly floating over the base.

And just seeing how nice the sky looked right now was enough to make him realize that if he had been back home in Orb. He would most likely have asked Cagalli out for a walk on the beach.

He truly did miss doing those kind of things with her. It was always so peaceful and relaxing walking on the sandy surface, listening to the comfortable calm sounds of the ocean and not having to worry about anything.

And he truly hoped that once this dreadful war was brought to an end. He would again have the opportunity to experience those kinds of moments together with the woman he loved.

And after standing there a couple of seconds, with his mind going slowly over some of the more nice experience, the two of them had been having together since they started their relationship.

Yet once he thought about how he had propose to her. He quickly gave his head a shook to get his mind over on something else. Now wasn't really the best of times for him to be thinking about such things.

It was properly much better that he kept his concentration on finding the Archangel. He could always think about the relationship he and Cagalli was in, once that task had been carried out.

And knowing that Nicol was properly getting a somewhat impatient waiting around for him. He slowly moved his thoughtful gaze away from the afternoon sky, then continued on down the walkway.

Now thinking about how to convince captain Gladys to let Nicol and him leave the ship for a few days.

Yet seeing as the Minerva's Tannhauser was still undergoing major repairs, because of all the damage Kira and Dearka had made on it. There was a big chance that the ship wouldn't be going in to combat again anytime soon.

Which meant that there wasn't really much for the ships pilots to do right now. So if Nicol and him could somehow find the Archangel.

That would undeniably be more beneficial, then just having the two of them wasting their time sitting around on the Minerva not doing anything. Other then waiting for the mechanics to finish putting the Tannhauser back together.

And seeing as they pretty much had to install a hold new cannon. It would most likely take more then a few days before the ship could leave this place.

And that time could definitely be much better spend, in finding and convincing the Archangel's crew. Not to make those kind of interference again, like they had done in yesterday's battle.

000000

It was about a half hour later, when the Saviour and the yellow GOUF was launched from the Minerva.

Once outside the red gundam immediately transformed over in to it's mobile armor and took off in the north east direction, with Nicol following closely behind him.

Seeing the two mobile suits slowly disappear in the horizon. Talia could not help but give her low lips a small bite. She might have given them permission to go out and search for the Archangel.

Yet that did not mean that she didn't have some serious thoughts about this whole matter. It wasn't like she felt any distrust towards the two pilots.

Each of them had both proven their big loyalty to Zaft. Ynd it wasn't like she was overly concerned that the two pilots wouldn't come back after accomplishing what they had set out to do.

Yet the true reason why the brown haired woman seemed so far away at the moment. Was because she knew that it was of great importance to Zaft that they gather as much knowledge about the Archangel as possible.

And even true she did trust the two pilots. She wasn't entirely sure that she could count on them to tell her everything, when they finally got back here from their little trip.

Which meant that she had to come up some other way, to make sure that collect whatever information they could from this whole affair.

And still thinking about what to do in this situation. She finally turned away from the window and walked back over to her seat, where she immediately sat down, still with that deep thoughtful look in both of her eyes.

So after sitting quietly there for a few more seconds. The brown haired woman finally came to a decision about how to handle this matter.

And knowing that the more time she spend in there, the further the gundam and the mass-produced mobile suit would get from the Minerva. And that would without a doubt make the task of tracking them down, all that much more difficult.

So not wanting to make the mission harder then it already was.

She hurried took a minor sip of her now half warm coffee, then reached out and pressed the small red button on the intercom, which meant that she was now in direct contact with the bridge.

"Meyrin, could you please tell your sister, that I would like to talk with her down in my office?" She said in a loud tone. That made it clear for everybody gather up on the bridge that this was serious.

And she did not have to wait long to get an answer from the youngish of the two Hawke sisters, who told her in a usual obedient tone that she would send Lunamaria down there immediately.

Truly pleased to hear that response, the captain of the Minerva felt a small smile ran over her lips, as she once more began talking to the red haired girl on the other end of the intercom.

"Thank you Meyrin, by the way how are the repairs going?" She asked. Truly wondering just how many hours it would take before all the work on the Tannhauser was done.

Not getting a reply on that question immediately. Talia could hear the crew up there talking loudly with each other about something. And even true she couldn't make out everything they where saying.

She could easily guess that it was the condition of the Minerva they where discoursing. And after about a minute or two she could once more hear Meyrin's voice over the intercom.

"Most of our mechanics, are still busy removing all the destroyed parts of the old Tannhauser, and according to Aves it will take a at least three or four days to install a whole new cannon" the red haired girl explained.

While using a few seconds to think about how horrifying it had been, when the Freedom gundam and that blue Murasame had destroyed the Tannhauser.

She might not have shown it much yesterday. But she had been slightly afraid that the whole ship was going to blow up, because of all the shaking the Minerva had done, when the Tannhauser exploded.

She truly hoped that something like that wouldn't happen again anytime soon. Those kinds of nasty experience, wasn't really something she was all that keen on trying more then once. Yet before she could think all that long about it.

The captain's friendly voice interrupted her deep thoughts about the Tannhauser's destruction by the two enemy mobile suits.

"Hmm ok I understand, please do keep me updated about the process Meyrin. And also if you have the time do you mind checking how many supplies' we have on board? And if there is anything we really need, then make a small list of everything?" She asked. Knowing that since it hadn't been that many days since they had last been at a Zaft base, the chance of them running out of food and water was kinda small.

Yet it certainly did not hurt to be on the safe side.

And when Meyrin told her that she would begin working on that immediately, the captain knew that she and the rest of the ship was kinda lucky having such a cooperative leader of the CIC.

"Good then, I'm counting on you Meyrin. Please get back to me once you are done, now do carry on!" She said, still using the same friendly tone as before.

And with nothing more to talk about the communication between Talia's office and the bridge ended.

So now the only thing the captain could do was wait until Lunamaria arrived down there.

She really did hope that the only female pilot on board was good enough to track both Athrun and Nicol down.

There really was no telling if the two boys would stay together, or split up to search for the Archangel on their own. If that happened she might just be forced to send somebody else out there too.

Yet for now it would definitely be best to have as few people as possible running around after the two former members of the Le Creuset team.

And while still sitting there thinking about that she slowly reached out after her coffee cup and took a small sip of the now almost completely cold liquid.

"Hmm I really need to get a new cup of this once I'm done talking with Luna" she said, sounding a tiny bit exhausted, as she took a small glance over at all the big stack of paper that was standing on her desk.

Knowing that she would have to go through all of that, was more then enough to make the gorgeous captain of the Minerva feel somewhat worn out.

And a small part of her actually did consider a few seconds to head out and search for another job.

Yet even as she sat there thinking about that. Talia slowly reached over and took the top piece of paper. And without doing any more postponing she began carefully reading the small black words that was writer down on the white material.

000000

Elsewhere Lunamaria was slowly leaving her room, with a slightly displeased expression on her face.

She had seriously hoped that she could spend the rest of the day just laying on her bed reading her news book and try to forget about what had happened to Heine.

She might not like it that much the few times he tried to flirt with her.

But that certainly did not mean she wasn't rattled up as everybody else about him getting killed. Truth be told she had actually been deeply sadden, when Athrun had told them that the orange haired man had been shoot down by the Gaia gundam.

And she knew without a doubt that she was going to miss both him and his sense of humor in the future.

And that was why she had immediately gone back to her room, once the soldier that had been given the somewhat depressing task of delivering all of Heine's things back to his family, had left the area.

She had really hoped that she could be on her own for a few hours. And just concentrate on reading a couple of chapters of her book.

Yet it had just badly started getting exciting, when her little sister had contact her and told her that the captain wanted to speak with her, which truthfully annoyed her a great deal. She might have a lot of respect for the captain.

But she really wished that the older woman could have left her alone. She seriously didn't feel like having a long conversation with anybody today.

So she really hoped that whatever the captain wanted was really important. She truly hated being disturbed while she was reading especially if it was a new book she had just gotten her hands on.

But even true a small part of her, really wanted to complain to the captain about this.

She knew that if she actually did such a brain dead thing. She would undeniably get herself in a lot of trouble. So it was properly best, to at least try and hide some of her discontentment. She really didn't want the captain to know, just how annoyed she was about having to leave her room.

And with that in mind she stopped and just stood there quietly a few seconds. Trying to get rid of the deep unhappy frown on her face.

She seriously did not want to show up at the captain's room. Looking like she was just about ready to wring the neck of the first person. That had the big misfortune to say just one wrong word to her.

Unfortunately not matter how long she stood there. She just couldn't think of anything cheerful enough, to get rid of that enormous vein on her forehead.

And realizing that she wouldn't get in a better mood anytime soon. The red haired girl, slowly moved her hand up and ran a couple of fingers over the still quite visible vein, feeling greatly annoyed that it was still there.

"Maybe after I'm done talking with the captain I should buy a hat or something else to hide this irritating thing!" She grumbled out in a clearly unhappy tone.

Before she gave the wall next to her a hard kick, while at the same time muttering out a few quite colourful curses, which she didn't care one bit about if anybody else heard. Not that there was anybody else there at the moment.

Apparently most of the ships crew was busy elsewhere.

So after complaining a bit longer about just how completely unfair her life was treating her right now.

She hurried turned around on one foot and continued on down the hall. Still utterly pissed off that she was not allowed to have even a single day to be lazy.

"I really hope that whatever she wants to talk about is of the upmost important. Not something like the status of my mobile suit. If she wants to know that, she could always ask either Vino or Yolant!" The female mobile suit piloted told herself.

While at the same time, trying her best to figure out what in the world, the captain of the Minerva wanted to see her for.

She did however not get long to sulk about that. Before she found herself in front of the captain's room, where she stood a unknown number of seconds taking a few deep breaths, in one last attempt to calm herself down.

And after making completely sure, that her short red hair was covering up most of the unhappy vein. She let out a small sigh before she slowly reached out and softly knocked on the door. And even true she almost immediately heard the captain's kind voice telling her to please come in.

She just could stop herself from yet again wondering what it was the captain wanted to talk with her about.

"Might as well get this over and done with. Perhaps if I'm a bit lucky I can get back to my book in just a few minutes" the girl mumbled quietly to herself, truly hoping that this meeting wouldn't take too long.

That way she could hurry back to her room. And continued on with the chapter, she had been so caught up in when her younger sister had disturb her, so still with all of those wishful thoughts roaming through her head.

The female piloted slowly moved her hand over to the button that would open the door to the captain's room. And it was only a second later, when she stepped in to the room. Where she immediately gave the brown haired woman a small yet respectful salute.

"Lunamaria Hawke reporting as ordered captain!" The red haired piloted said in a loud tone.

A bit confused over the girl's overly polite behaviour. The captain slowly raised her right eyebrow. "Please relax Luna, I did not call you down here for a scolding or anything like that, as a matter a fact I got a mission for you" Talia explained in a calm tone. While giving the red haired girl a friendly smile.

Hearing the captain said that Lunamaria almost growl out loud. Now that she knew that she would soon be going out on a mission, the girl knew that it would without a doubt take a very long time, before she would be able to read her most newly purchased book.

Why the world couldn't the captain had found somebody else to do this, why did it have to be her of all people.

But even true she was far from pleased about this. She managed to keep up her happy facade, as the captain began telling her what this mission was about.

And once Luna heard that she was supposed to track down Athrun and Nicol.

The red haired piloted immediately promised herself to give each of them a big hit on the noggin, once she discovered where her two fellow mobile suit pilots had ran off too.

Yet just like everything else today that idea quickly got shoot down. When the captain told her, that she was to keep a close eye on them, once she finally manage to track them down.

Which pretty much meant that now it was Lunamaria's turn to be a little confused. "And why is that captain, I thought the reason why I had to go out on this mission was to bring those two back?" She said not doing anything to hide. Just how much this was puzzling her, she really didn't understand why it was a necessity to send her out there for no apparent reason.

Smiling a bit at the girl's bewildered expression.

Talia began explaining the reason why Luna had to go after the two boys. "You are not suppose to bring them back here Luna! It would properly be for the best that they don't even see you. It's not like the two of them have deserter us or anything like that. They just showed up here a little while ago and asked permission to go out and search for the Archangel" the brown haired woman said, with a thoughtful look on her face.

There was still a great many things she didn't understand about the Archangel and what it's intentions where.

And that was why she hoped that by sending Luna out there.

The girl could perhaps dig up some vital information about the white space ship, there was seriously no telling how the slightest bit of knowledge could be of greatest importance when dealing with something as powerful and unpredictable as the Archangel.

She did however not get long to think about that before Luna's somewhat puzzled voice interrupted her thoughts.

"Why the heck would they take off to search for something like that, don't they realize what that ship did yesterday?" She asked in a loud unhappy tone, while a few pictures of everything the Archangel and the Freedom had done yesterday ran through her mind.

Just standing there thinking about it, was more then enough to make her already bad mood even worth.

Just like so many of the other crew members, she too blamed the Archangel for Heine's death. If that ship hadn't interfered, the orange man would most likely still be running around on the Minerva cracking his somewhat foolish jokes.

Yet before Lunamaria could disappear completely in to her own thoughts about the now dead comrade.

The brown haired captain began talking to her in a much more calm tone. Then the one the female pilot was using.

"I do believe that you already know the answer to that question Lunamaria. Both Athrun and Nicol where after all both a part of that ship's crew two years ago. So they are bond to have some people on board the Archangel they care about" Talia said. While thinking back to how close the Orb Chief Representative and Athrun had been the last time she saw them together.

Truth be told, now that she was really giving it some thought, she couldn't deny their relationship kinda remind her a bit of the one she had with her own lover.

So still with her mind somewhat occupied by Gilbert's gentle yet handsome smile.

She once more turned her thoughtful gaze, over at the only other person in her room, where she could easily tell by the girl's expression that she was thinking quite hard about everything she had just told her. And knowing that the longer the girl stayed here, the tough it would be for her to finding the two former members of the Le Creuset team.

And with that in mind. The woman once more continued talking about Athrun's and Nicol's reason to try and find the Archangel. "And that's properly the bigs reason why the two of them where both so eager to talk with them about everything that happened yesterday" the woman said.

While truly wondering if the two boys could even find the white space ship. They really did have a tough job ahead of them.

Not entirely realizing that the captain wasn't really paying all that much attention to her. Luna looked over at the brown haired woman, still trying to decide what she thought about her two friends reason to search for the Archangel.

Yet in the end she knew that her opinion on all of this didn't really matter.

She had been order to track down both Athrun and Nicol. So that was what she was going to do.

So while still feeling somewhat conflicted about the whole mission, she let out a small sigh, that could easily be heard all over the room. Seeing as both of the women where pretty quiet at the moment.

"I better get going now captain, I don't want those two rascals to get too far away" Luna said- Actually making it sound a tiny bit like, she was talking about two little kids, that had run away from their mother, while playing around in the park.

Smiling a bit at the girl's choice of words. Talia nodded a single time in understanding. "Well good luck then. By the way if it's any help they took of in the north east direction, so I do believe that they where heading towards Diocuia so if you take a look around in there. I'm certain you will be able to find them, without too much trouble" she said in a serious tone.

"That's great captain, thank you for that. Now then I'll see you once I get back" Lunamaria said. As she turned away from the captain and began walking towards the door, which pretty much meant that it did not take long before Talia was once more alone in her room.

Yet even true the woman still had a lot of paper work to do. She was determined to get a fresh cup of coffee before she continued on this nightmarish task.

And with that in mind she took one last glance at all the paper that was laying around on her desk. Before she slowly got back up on her feet, and began making her way over to the door.

000000

It was a couple of hours after that in Diocuia.

The two former members of the Le Creuset team, was slowly leaving the coast guards office.

Yhey had pretty much been caught in there ever since they got to the city. Asking them if they had seen anything peculiar in the area these last days. But unfortunately when they where finally able to leave the place again. They where still on the roughly on the bottom in the clue department.

Most of the people back in the coast guards office, had mostly just made fun of them. Asking if they where out on some kind of big treasure hunt.

And it was only when they had actually shown that they where Zaft soldiers, that they had finally gotten some answer.

Yet even true they had been somewhat polite after that, they still hadn't gotten any close to find the Archangel, as when they had first entered the place.

So in the end it truly had been a complete waste of their time, which wasn't really something any of them where utterly pleased about. "What now Athrun? Do you have any idea about where we should go next?" Nicol asked in a far away tone. While at the same time giving an empty beer that just happened to be laying in front of him a hard kick, making it fly a couple of yards down the sidewalk.

Looking a bit at the can Nicol was playing around with.

Athrun got a somewhat thoughtful look on his face. "That's kinda hard to say Nicol. Maybe we should head down to the harbour and ask some of the fisherman down there if they have seen anything" the blue haired teen said.

Just as he gave the can a much harder kick then the one Nicol had given it only a few seconds before.

Watching as the small can landed quite far away from them. Nicol again turned his attention back towards Athrun.

"To tell you the truth, I really don't believe we will get much out of that Athrun. If the coast guard haven't noticed anything strange with their highly advance ships. I do not think there is many chances that a few normal fishing boats have seen the Archangel" Nicol said, while taking a deep breath before he once more continued saying his opinion on what Athrun had just suggest.

"If the Archangel really was that careless. I think we would have found it a long time ago" Nicol said in a serious tone. As he kneel down and pinked up the small can they had been kicking around these last few minutes.

And once the two friends walked past a small garbage can, that was standing on a street corner. He cautiously throw the blue tin object in to it.

Thinking a few seconds about what Nicol had just said.

The pilot of the Saviour knew that getting any useful information down at the harbour, could be kinda hard, if not completely impossible. But it wasn't like they had anything else to go on.

And perhaps if they where lucky enough. They might just run in to a few people that had heard some interesting rumours about what was going on in this area. It was without a doubt better, then just walking around with no clear destination in mind.

"You might just be right about that Nicol. But I do think it's at the very least worth a shot. Beside I can't really think of anything else at the moment that would help us figure out where in the world they have gone. And if nothing else it would at least give us something to do, until we come up with a better idea" Athrun said.

It was only now that he was really giving it some serious thought, that he realized just how difficult this task was.

If they could only find something or somebody that could point them in a direction. Then they would at least have some kind of clue about where, to start searching for the Archangel.

But unfortunately they only thing they could do right now, was wander around and hope to somehow find a clue that could help them on the right track. But even true both of them realized that this was pretty much their only option at the moment.

None of them really had all that much faith in their luck right now. It really had been pretty bad since yesterday, so neither of the friends where truly expecting to just miraculously run in to something that could help them out.

So after spending a few minutes discoursing the matter, the two of them finally agree on heading down to the harbour, and ask a few questions to the people already down there.

And with that decision made. The two of them didn't say anything else to each other, as they began walking slowly towards the harbour. They could both see in the distance.

And while each of them walked slowly down the sidewalk in their own thoughts. They each truly hoped that one of the fisherman down there had just the right information they needed to finally locate the Archangel.

They however not get all that far before they spotted a familiar looking figure making her way across the pretty much empty street ahead of them. And just the sight of the brown haired girl was more then enough to make both of their eyes widen slightly.

As they stood there watching her for a few minor seconds.

Yet when they both saw her turn and began walking slowly up a bunch of stairs that would take her away from this area, both of them immediately snapped back out of their deep thoughts and hurried rushed after the girl, before she had the time to get too far away from them.

"Hey Miriallia! Miriallia Haw please wait we need to talk with you!" Athrun yelled out in a tone, that could without a doubt be heard through most of the area, as the two friends raced full speed across street. Not even bothering to take the time to look out for cars, as they ran as fast as their legs could carry them, directly towards the long staircase the former CIC of the Archangel had disappear up at a few moments ago.

Yet just as the two of them where about to follow her up the long staircase. They saw her standing about halfway up looking down at them, with a somewhat curious expression on her face.

Which immediately became a bit more serious. Once she saw who it was that was so eager to talk with her.

Miriallia might have trusted these two men in the last war.

But after hearing from Dearka how a small squadron of elite Zaft soldiers had targeted one of her best friends and the rest of the people, she pretty much consider as a extended part of her family.

So she knew that it was properly a very wise move on her part, not to completely trust these two yet. Seeing as she had very limited knowledge, about which side they where on at this moment in time.

And realizing that her small handbag and her camera contented a great deal of information. That Zaft could without a doubt use to it's own advantage.

The girlfriend of the former pilot of the Buster gundam, was quite determined to at the very least be a little cautious around these guys. Properly until she could figure out if she could truly trust them again.

She had after all been posing as a journalist for quite some time now, to gather together all of this information.

And there was just no way in hell she was going to give any of the data she had on her to Zaft. There seriously was not telling what in the world they could use it for.

And if anybody took the time to take a real thorough look at all the data she had used these last few weeks to collect.

They would quickly discover that she had been using a lot of time to try and figure out who the fake Lacus Clyne was.

There was even a few photo hidden away down in her bag where the pink hair on the fake Lacus had been altered in to another colour, incase the stupid bitch was actually colouring her hair.

So after standing there a bit longer, letting her two blue eyes slowly glide back and forth between the two an unknown number of times. She finally opened her mouth and began talking to them in a quiet yet friendly tone.

"Athrun Zala and Nicol Amalfi. It's been quite a long time since I have last seen you guys! So what is it that you want to talk with me about?" She asked. Still looking a bit like she was in a hurry to get out of there.

She wasn't really overly keen on hang out with these guys right now.

If it had been under any other circumstance. And she wasn't running around with all of this information, it might actually be fun to catch up with these two again.

Especially Nicol, who she haven't seen once since he went back home after the last war. Yet before she could really start thinking about, how nice it would be having a good long conversation with the former pilot of the Blitz.

The blue haired man interrupted her slightly straying thoughts. "Well the reason why we want to talk with you Miriallia, was because we where hoping, that you could assist us get in contact with the Archangel. We seriously need to talk with them as quickly as possible" Athrun explained, while looking directly in to the brown haired girl's two blue eyes. Truly hoping that Nicol and him could somehow convince her to help them out.

Hearing him say that.

Miriallia narrowed her eyes a bit, as she nodded a single time in understanding. "Hmm so that's the reason why you guys are here. Unfortunately for the two I haven't really been in contact with them for a long time now. Which is kinda sad, I really do miss Dearka" the girl said. Before she turned around, and was just about to walk off when Athrun raced up beside her.

"Please wait a sec Miriallia, you just have to know of a way to get in contact with them. I really have to talk with Cagalli and Kira!" He said in a loud tone, that didn't do anything to hide how serious he was taking this.

Perhaps this truly was the only possible way for Nicol and him to find the Archangel. So there was no way, they could just let her leave like she had been about to.

Looking a bit at the blue haired man that was now tightly holding on to her shoulder. "Athrun do you know what happened to the house me and everybody else use to live in back home in Orb?" The brown haired girl asking, with a somewhat distrustful look in both of her eyes.

And even true she could easily tell that her question did surprise him a bit.

It did not take long, before he slowly shook his head a few times.

"No, why are you asking about that Mir? Did something happen to it?" The blue haired man asking in a serious tone. And with a slightly confused look in both of his eyes, while he stood there thinking back to the very house. He and his lovely fiancée, had been spending so much time in. In the company of some of the very people that was truly important in both of their lives.

Not giving him any kind of reply to his questions. Miriallia just kept on staring at him, still with that strange look in each of her eyes.

"I see, I'm really glad to hear that Athrun. Now then, if I don't help you guys out then what? Would you try and force me to contact the Archangel?" She asked using a tone, that was more then enough to make it clear, that she wanted some kind of answer to this question.

Blinking a few times at that. Athrun pretty much immediately got a complete shocked expression on his face.

He just didn't understand why the girl was asking about something like that. How in the world could she possibly think, that they where actually going to do such a terrible thing, as to try and force her to help them.

"Why would you even ask that, of course there is no way, we would ever do something like that Miriallia. We are Zaft soldiers not a bunch of vicious animals, we just want to make sure that the crew on board the Archangel wouldn't interfere again like they did yesterday!" Athrun said.

Not doing a single thing to hide just how much the last of the girl's questions had shocked him.

Slowly shaking his hand away from her shoulder.

The brown haired girl took one small step away from him. "I'm not really sure about the animal part Athrun. Not that my opinion on the matter is all that important. I think it's better that you have a good long conversation with Cagalli and Kira. I'll get in contact with them for you, just give me your cell phone number. Then I will call you once everything is ready" she said in a quiet voice. That made it kind hard to figure out what she thought about all of this.

Truly happy to hear her say that.

Nicol hurried made his way up to Athrun and the brown haired girl. "That's very kind of you Miriallia. I know that I for one is really grateful for you assistance" Nicol told her, while giving her a small bow. Before he stood up straight again and pulled out a small black cell phone.

Seeing as this was pretty much a whole new phone he hadn't really been using it a lot. And that meant he hadn't bother memorizing the number yet.

Looking at him for a second or two. Miriallia couldn't help but be a bit amazed that the green haired teenager was still acting this polite. Other then his appearance he really had change all that much.

And it was at times like these. That she kinda wished that he had stayed in contact with all of them, after he went back home to the Plants two years.

It wasn't only her and Dearka that had missed him greatly once he had left. Pretty much all of them, had from time to time been wondering just what in the world he had been doing, since they had last seen him.

So it seriously would have been nice. If this little reunion with him, wasn't half as tense and nerve wreaking as it was right now.

It quite frankly would have been great. If all of them could have found a good little restaurant, and sit down and have a nice long dinner together, while talking about pretty much everything that had happened since they had last seen each other.

Yet she realized that now wasn't really the right time for her to be thinking about that.

So even true it was somewhat obvious that neither of them knew what had happened to her's and the other's home back in Orb.

And as much as she liked and cared about both of them. She still felt somewhat insecure in their company. But that was most likely because of the small amount of information she was carrying around.

And with those thoughts in mind. She slowly reached over towards her purse, where she digged around for a brief moment. Until she finally pulled out a small black pen and a pad of paper.

After that she once more looked over at Nicol. Who immediately began telling her his cell phone number, which she hurried wrote down on the blank paper.

Once that small task was accomplish. She put both of the items back in her purse. "Ok then, I promise you that I'll send them a messages as quickly as possible. So I will most likely contact you guys either tomorrow or the day after" she explained, while taking a short glance over at the descending sun. That at this moment in time was slowly disappearing in the horizon.

And not really overly keen on going to bed hungry this evening, she once more turned her attention back towards the two boys. "Well if there is nothing else you two needs to talk with me about. I'll see both of you once I have figure out when and where the meeting is suppose to take place. Now then if you will excuse me there is a few things I need to buy before the stores around her starts to close" she said in a slightly loud tone.

Just as she turned around and began making her way up the rest of the stairs.

Looking after the brown haired girl until she was completely out of sight.

Nicol got a somewhat thoughtful look in both of his eyes. As he slowly moved his gaze away from the direction Miriallia had disappeared in and over at Athrun.

"She really hasn't change much since the last time I saw her. I guess we where kinda fortune to run in to her. But to tell you the truth Athrun, I'm not entirely sure that I believe she will actually contact us once she has talk with the others. Maybe it was a bit stupid of us just to let her run off like that" Nicol said, in a tone that made it kinda hard to figure out, what he was thinking about right now.

But even true Athrun frankly had no know idea about what was going through his friend's head at the moment.

He couldn't just stop himself from blinking a few times at those words. It truly was rare to hear the former Blitz piloted talk like that.

"So what exactly did you want to do Nicol? She is after all a very dear friend of ours" the blue haired man said. Just before a light yet powerful shiver made it's way down his spine.

"And to tell you the honest truth Nicol, I would seriously hate to be in the shoes of whoever was crazy enough to actually try hurt Miriallia. I'm pretty sure that there wouldn't be anything left to bury once Dearka is finished" he said. Thinking about what utterly horrifying destiny, would await whatever person that did anything mean to the brown haired girl.

Thinking a few seconds about everything Athrun had just said. Nicol found himself nodding slowly agreement,

If there was one thing he had no trouble at all remembering from his time on board the Archangel. Then it was that Dearka was always very protective of Miriallia.

And Nicol was pretty certain that hadn't change much these last two years.

Quite the opposite as the matter of fact. If anything his protective nature of her had most likely grown even bigger then it had been back then. And with that in mind he slowly opened his mouth and began talking in a far away tone.

"It's not like I'm suggesting that we should take her hostage or anything like that Athrun. I'm just saying that if she hadn't disappeared that quickly, maybe we should actually have followed her back to wherever she live. That way we would always know where to look for her, if she doesn't make contact with us the next few days" the green haired teen said, in a voice that made it completely obvious to Athrun that he was serious about this suggestion

Not really needing a lot of time to think about Nicol's words.

The pilot of the Saviour slowly shook his head a couple of times. "I seriously don't think you have all that much to worry about Nicol. I'm pretty certain that Miriallia knows just how important it is that we talk with the others. And I know for a fact that both Kira and Cagalli would like to talk with me too" Athrun said.

Using a brief moment to go over what he should say once he saw the two of them again.

He did however not stay in his own thoughts for long. Before he again turned his attention back towards Nicol. "So for now it would seem like the only thing we can do is wait, until Miriallia is ready to tell us where the meeting will take place" Athrun said.

Just as he quickly forced back a yawn, that had been about ready to leave his mouth.

Seeing his friend do that. Nicol realized that he too was actually quite tired.

After all the wandering around they had been doing today.

None of them had really gotten much time to sit down and just relax since they had left the Minerva. And it truly would be nice if they could find some place where they could rest their tired feet a bit, and perhaps get something to eat.

"I guess you are properly right Athrun, so instead wasting anymore time out here, why don't we turn our attention over on finding somewhere we can spend the night while we are here. I seriously don't think there is much need for us to head back to the Minerva. And I really don't feel like, flying all the way back there" the GOUF pilot said, with an exhaust look in his eyes.

Pretty much already knowing how Nicol felt about getting back in to a mobile suit today. The tired blue haired young man found himself nodding a single time in agreement, to everything Nicol had just said.

So with no further reason to hang around there anymore. The two friends turned around and began slowly making their way down the stairs.

Neither of them noticing the pair of angry blue eyes looking after them.

"It's about time I found you two idiots! I been running around through half of the city searching for you guys. so I seriously hope you mean it when you say you want to find a place to spend the night, I really don't feel like seeing the rest of this damn town!" The red haired girl grumbled quietly to herself.

Just as she hurried followed the two men.

Still deeply unhappy, that she hadn't been able to read at least one single page, in her book the entire day.

To be continued.


	28. Chapter 28

Chapter 28

It was early the next morning deep below the ocean surface.

Everything just seemed so calm and peaceful his morning on board the Archangel, something most of the crew enjoyed greatly, either by staying in their beds to get a few more hours of sleep or having a nice long breakfast.

Yet there was two people that didn't have the time for either of these pleasurable things and was at this very moment walking down one of the ships halls.

Each of them busy discoursing the small piece of paper the youngish of the two women was holding on to.

"I really hope that those two are already awake. It's just so annoying getting them to wake up if they are fast asleep" Cagalli said. While taking yet another look at the few letters that was written down on the small piece of paper.

And even true the minor riddle there would properly have confused most people. The blond haired woman had no trouble at all, figuring out what Miriallia meant with this message.

She was after all engaged with the so call red knight that was mentioned on the paper. But even true she could badly content her excitement over finally being able to see Athrun again.

There was one thing in the letter that did puzzled her a bit. She knew what Miriallia meant when she wrote and told them, that the knight in red armour was requesting a meeting with them.

Yet the last part about him bringing his side kid along, was more then enough to confuse the few people that had been gather up on the Archangel's bridges, this early in the morning.

And even true Cagalli could honestly say that she thought her handsome strong fiancée was a bit of a hero at times. It really was news to her that he was having some kind of side kid. And it seriously made her wonder who the heck Miriallia was referring to with that title.

Yet before she could really begin thinking about it.

The voice of the only other person nearby interrupted her thoughts. "Well after living with Kira and Lacus for such a long time, I can honestly tell you that the possibility of the two of them being awake at this hour is very low. So we will properly have to use a little time waking each of them up, I'm sure you know how big a challenge that can be" Murrue said. While taking a few seconds to think about how incredibly difficult it could be, getting the married couple to wake up.

It was without a doubt an even worse task getting Kira and Lacus to voluntarily leave their comfy bed. Then it was convincing Mayu that it was time for her to get up and go to school.

Which wasn't really something her daughter was that overly excited about, seeing as she pretty much believed that it was the most boring thing ever. And that she hated it with a passion.

Something she made extra sure to at least tell one of them, whenever she got back home from school.

Yet as she continued thinking so hard about how utterly difficult her normally well behaved daughter could be whenever it was time for her to leave and go to school.

The blond woman walking next to her interrupted her thoughts started talking in a somewhat wicked tone.

"I'm not really in the mood to deal with those two sleepyheads. I just want to hear their opinion on Miriallia's message. But if they really are asleep maybe we should consider taking a bucket of water along with us. That would certainly wake them up in a hurry" she said with a small grin on her face.

Thinking a few seconds about that suggestion. Murrue couldn't prevent a tiny smile from appearing on her lips.

"If I do remember correctly didn't you and Athrun already tried that trick once before. How was it now that ended exactly Cagalli?" The brown haired woman asked. Doing nothing at all to hide that she already knew the response to this question.

Yet just being remind about how that little prank had played out two years ago, was pretty much all that was need to make the minor grin on Cagalli's face disappear only to be replaced by a small unhappy frown.

"Ok, ok I know that didn't really go as we planed it, but the whole thing just got so damn mess up when we enter their room back then. I seriously hope that they are not sleeping naked beside each other again, seeing that one time was more then enough for me" Cagalli said.

As her mind wander back to how utterly and completely terrible it had been. The last time she and Athrun had enter the married couple's room carrying a bucket of water.

Giggling slightly at the young woman's unhappy words.

Murrue too thought a bit about that small incident, back then she hadn't know the real reason why the married couple had dumped the water on Athrun and Cagalli in the first place. To be completely honest it was only a few months ago, that she had been able to figure out why exactly Lacus and Kira found it necessary to punish their two friends like that.

And even true neither Athrun or Cagalli liked being remind about what they had done to deserve the water. Murrue had found the entire affair quite humorous

Which was something she hadn't hesitated in showing by teasing the two young couples at every given opportunity. She might not be nearly as good at pissing Cagalli of as Mu had been. But that certainly did not mean she couldn't do it when she tried.

Yet as Mu's grinning handsome face slowly appear in her mind. She hurried shook her head a few times, not wanting to get caught up thinking about him right now.

Even true Mu was one of those people she could honestly say that had brought a lot of happiness in to her life.

She still couldn't help herself from feeling slightly depressed every time she thought about him. Seeing as she still missed him quite a lot.

So in a small attempt to get her mind away from the man she was still clearly in-love with. She turned her attention back towards Cagalli that was obviously still trying to come up with some inventive way, to wake up her brother and his wife.

And not really overly keen on having a small prank war, break out between the blond haired girl and the married couple.

Murrue decided that it was properly best to try and talk the girl out of doing something too crazy, once they arrived at their destination.

"Well not to ruin your fun and games Cagalli. But you do remember that we are going to their room, to hear their opinion on the message we got from Miriallia, not to start an all out prank war with the two of them?" The brown haired woman asked, in a slightly concerned tone.

And immediately after hearing the other woman ask her that. Cagalli once more got a small yet unhappy frown on her forehead.

She had seriously hoped to come up with some kind of deeply irritating idea to wake up both her bother and her sister-in-law.

Yet thanks to Murrue. That minor scheme had just been completely ruined, so while still looking at the captain of the Archangel with an unsatisfied expression on her face. She couldn't help but mutter out something that sound very much like spoilsport.

But even true Murrue had no trouble hearing the blond haired girl call her that. She just smiled a bit at her as the two of them continued slowly down the white space ship's halls.

Each of them now wondering just how much trouble they would have to go through. To wake up the married couple.

They where however both in for a minor surprise, when Murrue reached over and softly knocked on the door to the presumably sleeping couple's room. Yet instead of receiving no kind of reply from in there. They each heard Kira's voice telling them to come in.

So after taking a small glance at each other. Murrue slowly moved her hand over and pressed down on the button that would permit them entrance to the chamber in front of them.

Once in there they saw Kira wide awake laying on his and Lacus' bed with the pink haired girl sleeping peacefully on top of him, with a small yet content smile on her lips. That made it pretty obvious for both Murrue and Cagalli that she was have a nice dream at the moment.

Unfortunately neither of them got much time, to try and figure out what exactly Lacus was dreaming so happily about. Before Kira lifted his head and looked over at them.

"Hello you two, it's a surprise to see you this early in the morning" He said to them in a quiet voice. While slowly running his fingers through Lacus' long soft pink hair.

Smiling a bit at her brother. Cagalli walked over and sat down in the foot of the bed, where she immediately stretched both of her arms up over her head.

"Well to tell you the truth bro. Both miss Murrue and I are likewise surprise at seeing you awake at this hour. Normally Lacus and you have a tendency to sleep most of the morning away, so what gives bro why are you awake this early?" Cagalli asked, not once taking her eyes away from her clearly still tired brother.

Hearing her asked that. Kira slowly turned his attention away from his lovely wife and down towards his sister, where he saw her watching him with a curious look in her eyes.

And one glance over at Murrue was more then enough to tell him that she was just as interested in knowing the answer to this question as Cagalli was. And seeing as he had nothing against telling them. He once more turned his gaze back towards Lacus.

"It's not really a big mystery why I am awake. Lacus is a bit of a cuddler from time to time, and she does have quite a tight grip when she wants to. So if she choose me over one of the pillows, she holds on to me so tightly. That it's only when I start combing her hair that she finally relax again" the brown haired man explained.

Not once taking his eyes away from the woman he loved with all of his heart.

Thinking a brief moment or two about that. Murrue let out a small giggle.

"I didn't think Lacus was that much of a cuddler Kira, so just how often does she wake you up like that?" The woman asked in a curious tone. Before she slowly let her usual kind gaze glide away from Kira and down at the pink hair sleeping girl. That was still resting peacefully on top of her husband, apparently not realizing that she and Kira wasn't alone in there any longer, and that they had company now.

Not really needing a whole lot of time to go over that question, seeing as it was pretty much a normal occasion, that Lacus would cuddle up to him while she was still fast asleep.

So while smiling gently, at the brown haired woman, he saw as an older sister. Kira once more ran his hand down thought his wife's hair.

"Hmm I guess two or three times a week, she especially have the tendency to do it, if for some reason we don't go to bed at the same time" the man explained, while truly enjoying the calm and peaceful expression on Lacus' face.

Thinking a few seconds about what her brother had just told her and the captain of the Archangel. Cagalli couldn't help but grin a bit.

"Ok I get it now, so what you are saying bro, is that Lacus is an even bigger cuddler when you have been wasting half of the night playing your dumb video games with Dearka?" the blond girl said.

Using a voice that made it pretty obvious. That she really didn't need any kind of reply to this question. That she was simply stating a fact from everything Kira had just told them.

Taking a brief glance away from Lacus and over at his immature sister, Kira slowly roll his eyes a single time. "As much as I love Lacus and she loves me sis, we do not spend every single moment of the day together, from time to time we do things apart. For example she likes watching a certain TV show, which I don't really find all that entertaining. Yet on the other hand I like playing a few video games against Mayu or Dearka" he said. Not once moving his eyes away from his sister.

That apparently was thinking quite hard about everything he had just said. Yet after a brief moment or two, she finally got her mind back on the discussion she was in with her brother.

"Well now that we are on the subject bro. I most admit I'm a bit curious about just how much time you lovebirds spends together? From time to time you guys seems almost inseparable" Cagalli said, while thinking about how utterly cling the married couple could be at times.

Not that she was one to talk, it wasn't really a big secret that she and Athrun could be just as cling as the other couple, maybe even more so.

And not really overly keen on being remind about that right now. Cagalli decided that it was most likely a good idea to quickly change the subject, before her brother or the captain of the Archangel, could recall how her and Athrun behaved when they where together.

Yet before she could get her mouth open and say something else. Kira's voice beat her to it, and began telling her the answer to the question she had asked only a few seconds ago.

Not that Cagalli remember anything about that, with all of these thoughts going through her head about how lovey-dovey she and Athrun could be.

"I honestly don't know how much time we spend together Cagalli. But one thing I'm completely sure of is that I will never get tired of it, I really do love her with all of my heart" the brown haired man explained. While he once again moving his fingers through the long pink silky like hair, that was pretty much covering both of them at the moment.

Hearing him say that a big smile immediately appear on Murrue's face. "Ohh that sound just so romantic, I really miss having somebody around that would say such things to me!" The brown haired woman said. As Mu's more charming grin ran slowly through her head.

In all honesty it truly had been a very long time since she had last heard something like that, and she kinda missed it from time to time.

Yet when she thought about getting in to a new relationship. She always end up deciding that she wasn't ready for something like that yet. And that it was much more important that she was a good mother to Mayu.

Even true it would truly would be nice if her sweet daughter, had some kind of person in her life she could see as her father.

But no matter how many times she thought about that. Murrue just couldn't bring herself to start dating again, after losing both her first boyfriend and Mu in battle she was deeply afraid of being hurt like that again.

She seriously didn't think she would be able to bear losing yet another man she was in-love with. So at least for now it would definitely be best to just be there for Mayu and the rest of the people that was important to her.

Yet as she stood there thinking about what would truly be best, both for Mayu and herself. The blond girl in there made the decision to put in her two cents about the subject.

"I agree with miss Murrue that was kinda cute, even after being married for two whole years, you guys are still an adorable couple. Not as adorable as Athrun and me, but still quite adorable nevertheless!" Cagalli said in a loud tone.

While thinking about just how great a pair she and her handsome fiancée truly was. It truly was great to know that she had such a person in her life that loved her so much.

Yet as Cagalli sat there at the foot of the bed dreaming about the relationship she was in. The fourth person in the room slowly lifted her head away from Kira's chest and looked down at her sister-in-law.

"I most say that I disagree with you on that Cagalli. You and Athrun are without a doubt a cute and adorable couple. But Kira and I are most definitely the best couple around" the pink haired woman said, with a somewhat challenging look in each of her blue eyes. That made it pretty clear that she was quite ready to get in to a longer term discussion about this matter.

And just the sight of that daring look in Lacus eyes, was more then enough to make Cagalli narrow her own a bit. Yet just before she had the necessary time to come up with something to say back.

Murrue decided to cut it to the conversation before it could get too far out of hand.

Both of the young women did after all seem quite determined to be right about which one of the couples was the cutest one of them. And Murrue seriously didn't feel like listening to such a conversation.

Especially because it didn't take that much of genius to figure out. That if they first got started on such a debate, it could take more then a few hours before they where done.

Just being remind about what the two of them had came here for in the first place. Was enough for Cagalli to decided that she could always talk with Lacus about the whole coupling thing some other time.

And with that in mind, the short temper girl, took yet another small look down at the message from Miriallia, which she was still firmly holding on to.

And after reading the words one more time, she quietly handed the slightly curled up piece of paper to her brother.

Somewhat confused about what Cagalli was giving him. Kira slowly reach out and pull the offer object out of her hand.

"What is this Cagalli?" The brown haired man asked, while looking up in to his sister eyes, where he could easily tell by her expression that her patience was running dangerously low.

Which seriously made Kira wonder what was so important about this small piece of paper. She apparently had been carrying around for quite some time now.

Hearing him ask that. Cagalli once more narrowed her eyes a bit, before she let out a small sigh. "Why the heck don't you just read it instead of asking stupid question Kira? It's a message we receive from Miriallia about an hour ago, now hurry up an read it before one of us ends up dying of old age!" The blond haired woman said in a loud tone, while impatiently tapping with her right foot.

"Now, now, please try and come down Cagalli. It's not like we are just going to crumple the paper up and throw it over in the nears corner, Kira was simply just asking you what it was" Lacus said in a slightly hard tone.

As she slowly moved away from Kira's chest. And sat up on the nice comfy bed she and her husband had been spending the last many nights in. Since the Archangel once more became their home.

Knowing that it was quite rare that Lacus raised her voice like that. The blond haired woman took a deep breath, in a minor attempt to at least try calm herself down a bit.

"Ok I'm sorry about that bro! But would you please hurry up and read the letter? I'm almost dying to hear you guys opinion on what's written in that message!" She said. Not doing a single thing to hide, that she was still quite low on the very thing most people knew as patience, and that she was pretty much ready to blow a fuse at any moment now.

Immediately after hearing just how much of a rush his sister was in right now. Kira wonder slightly how in the world Athrun was able to handle her when she was like this.

Yet after sitting there thinking about that for a second or two. He slowly shook his head a few times, before he turned his attention away from her and down at the crumpled paper.

And after reading it thoroughly through two times. He once more looked up at his short tempered sister, with a pair of wide eyes. "This is about Athrun isn't it?" He asked. While wondering what in the world his best friend, had been doing ever since he made the decision to go back to the Plants, and talk with Chairman Durandal about how Zaft was handling the war.

It truly had been an extremely long time since they had heard anything from him. And Kira would honestly be lying quite a bit if he said he hadn't been worried about his friend.

With everything that had been going on these last few weeks. It had been kinda hard to figure out if anything had happened to him, and it wasn't really like they could actually just contact Zaft and ask about him.

So in the end this truly was the first sign of life they had received from him ever since he pretty much disappeared an entire month ago.

And even true she frankly hadn't been showing it all that much. Kira had no doubt that Cagalli had been worried sick about her fiancée, not that anybody could really blame her. She did after all love Athrun quite a bit.

Yet as the male Yamato sat there thinking about that. His wife slowly reached over and pulled the small letter out of his hand.

Which she immediately began reading quietly to herself. Once that small task was carried out, the pink haired teen again turned her attention back towards the two siblings, where she could easily tell by their expressions, that they where both quite far away in their own thought.

"Well to be honest, I most admit that I too find this little message quite interesting. But I'm also a bit concerned about it's contents, I do know that it make it sounds like Athrun wants to get in contact with us. But seeing as none of us are entirely certain that it is Miriallia who send this message, we should be very cautious. It could after all be some kind of ingenious trap to lure us out of hiding!" The pink haired girl said in a serious tone. As she saw her husband nod a single time in agreement.

"Yeah I been thinking about that too Lacus. But I still seriously think we need to check it out. If it really isn't Miriallia who send this, it could mean that she could be in some kind of danger, and if that's the case we need to do something about it!" The brown haired man said in a determined tone.

Not doing a thing to hide that he was quite concerned about their female friend.

Hearing him say that Murrue nodded a single time in agreement. "I know what you mean Kira. Dearka thought pretty much the same thing. He is already down in the hangar getting his Murasame ready to head out, even true the message clearly state that the meeting isn't suppose to take place before this evening. And seeing as it still is quite early in the morning, I'm sure that it wouldn't be long before he starts getting paranoid, there is after all a few hours yet until we have to show up there" the brown haired woman said in a thoughtful tone.

Thinking a brief second or two about everything they had just said.

Cagalli just couldn't help but get a slightly depressed look in both of her eyes, as she felt some of the deep excitement she had been feeling ever since they received the message leave her.

"I guess the only thing we can do, is show up at this meeting assuming it is a trap" she said in a far away tone, while Athrun's handsome smile ran slowly through her mind.

Studying her facial expression a bit. Kira had little trouble telling, that this part of the conversation did upset her quite a bit.

And knowing how much she truly wanted to see Athrun again.

He slowly reached out and place his right hand on her shoulder, which pretty much immediately made her eyes to spring away from her lap and up at him, where he gave her a light smile.

"You are right sis, that certainly would be a wise move on our part. And that why I think that the only once who shows up at this meeting should be the two of us and Dearka. Seeing as I highly doubt that we can talk him out of leaving with Miriallia involved" he said in a very serious tone.

Truly delighted to hear him say that. Cagalli nodded a single time in agreement, before she leaped up from where she had been sitting on the bed.

"That's great Kira! So now that we all agree on what we have to do. I think I'll head down to the hangar to make sure that the Duel Rouge is ready to head out!" She declared loudly.

Then hurried made her way over to the door. Yet before she could even get it opened, her brother call out to her one more time.

Which immediately made her turn and look back at him. "Not to ruin your good mood sis. But I think it's best that the Duel Rouge stays back here, the fewer mobile suits we bring along the least chance are there that we are going to be discovered. Beside if we need to get out of there in a hurry, your mobile suit wouldn't be able to keep up with either the Freedom or Dearka's Murasame" he said in a voice that left little room to disagreement.

But even true Kira had told her that this arrangement wasn't meant to ruin her good mood. Cagalli did of course feel slightly disappointed that she could not use the Duel Rouge, on this little mission.

"Ahh man that totally blows Kira. Now what the heck am I suppose to do all day?" She asked in a somewhat unhappy tone.

Yet before either the married couple or Murrue had enough time to give her some kind of reply. She reached out and got the door opened, and disappeared out in to the hall, with the rest of the people in there looking after her.

And it was only when the door flew back shut.

That Murrue turned around and looked back at the young couple that was still calmly sitting on their bed.

"Now then if there is nothing else we need to talk about. I think I'll go down and see what Mayu is up to. I didn't really see all that much to her yesterday. Apparently she was busy elsewhere" the brown haired woman said, before she slowly made her way over to the door.

And with the captain of the Archangel was gone too. Both Lacus and Kira fell back down on the bed, where they each laid quietly for a few long minutes without saying anything to each other.

It did however not take all that long before Lacus looked away from the ceiling, and over at her husband. "It really has been a long time since any of us have been up this early in the morning" the pink haired woman said.

Just as she slowly stretching both of her arms up over her head. While at the same time letting out a small yawn, that was more then enough to show Kira that she still was quite tired.

Yet before he could say anything about that Lacus continued talking in a soft tone. "So what do you want to do now Kira? I'm seriously considering going down and take a long nice dip in the hot spring. Each of my shoulders does feel kinda sore right now. But I'm pretty sure that it would help to relax down there a bit" she said before she slowly sat back up on the bed.

Hearing his gorgeous wife say that. Kira also got back up and gently embraced her from behind. Softly rubbing her nice little belly, as he began whispering in to her left ear.

"If you want me to, I would gladly give you a small or long massage" he told her in a sweet caring tone. Just before he moved his mouth a little lower and began softly nibbling on her tiny earlobe. Which was more then enough to send a minor shiver down Lacus' spind.

Yet when she felt him give one of the more sensible spots on her neck a kiss. She hurried turned around in his arms. So now they where looking directly in to each other eyes.

And it was only a small second later they slowly moved in and pressed their lips together.

Which made each of them moan softly, as they once more fell back down on the bed. Both of them truly enjoying their morning activities, which consisted mostly of a great deal of passionately making out and a few other more naughty things, that required that they got out of their clothes first.

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And while the young couple was busy doing their unusual morning exercise.

Murrue was making her way down the Archangel's long halls, heading directly towards her daughter's room.

Truly hoping to spend a little quality time together with her. Now that there wasn't anything present that needed her attention. Wich meant that she had more then enough time to perhaps play a few board games with Mayu.

Something she knew from experience that her daughter liked quite lot. Especially if everybody in their weird little family was together about it.

But seeing as everybody else was busy doing their own things at the moment. It looked like it just had to be the two of them. Which was something Murrue honestly didn't mind all that much.

Now that she was actually giving it some thought. She realized that it had been quite a while since they had time to act like a normal mother and daughter.

And that was quite frankly something Murrue had missed a lot. Since she had assumed her position as captain of the Archangel.

Yet now that things had quiet down a bit. She seriously hoped that nothing else would happen the next many hours, until it was about that time where Cagalli, Dearka and Kira would have to leave, for their supposed meeting with Athrun and his socall side kid. Whoever that was.

And even true she knew that the three teens, was able to handle themselves and look after each other, if the whole meeting request was some kind of trap or for some other reason went out of hand. But even so she just couldn't help but feel a tiny bit uneasy, about sending them out there on their own, without the Archangel and the rest of them to function as backup if this little encounter went wrong.

Yet as she kept on walking down the hall, it didn't really take all that long before she found herself standing directly in front of Mayu's room. And knowing that Mayu would easily be able to tell if there was something bothering her.

She just stood there quietly a few minutes, taking a few deep long breaths, in an attempt to get rid of these worrisome thoughts.

She was after all quite determined to have a nice peaceful time together with her daughter, and with that decision made she slowly reached out and pressed down on the button that would open the door to Mayu's room. Y

et before she could get even a word out, her eyes widen greatly, once she laid eyes on the almost destructive condition the youngest crew member's room was in.

"Dear God how can one single person make such a big mess?" She quietly asked herself. Just as both of her eyes slowly ran over all the things that laid spread out all over the floor.

Yet once her gaze reached the only inhabit of the chamber. She just couldn't help but notice the happy smile Mayu had on her face, which was more then enough to make the shocked expression on Murrue's face diminish just a tiny bit.

"What in the world am I going to do with you Mayu? It seriously looks like a couple of mobile suits have been on a rampage in here. I don't think I will ever be able to understand how somebody can sleep in such a big mess" she said in a whisper. Utterly amazed, that Mayu was actually able to sleep so peacefully with all of these things surrounding her.

So after standing there a bit longer wondering why Mayu always found it necessary to make such a mess.

It wasn't like she didn't have the time to put her things back to where they belong. Yet for some reason no matter how many times Murrue asked her daughter about it, she would never get a clear answer.

Instead Mayu would always try and come up with some completely idiotic excuse for not picking her toys up. And Murrue was pretty certain that this time would be no different.

But knowing that Mayu hadn't really had anytime to come up with one of her excuses. She realized that it wouldn't be to difficult to convince Mayu what the two of them where going to do once she woke up on her own.

And with that in mind. Murrue slowly bent down and pink up one of the mangas that laid gather together on the floor.

And after making certain that she hadn't read this one yet. She walked over and sat down at the foot of her daughter's bed, where she calmly start reading the small book. Being careful not to disturb the sleeping girl.

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It was a few hours later when Kira enter the Archangel's hangar, with his brown uncombed hair slightly damp, seeing as it hadn't been long since he had gotten out of the shower.

Yet as he stood there looking around at the mechanics and the mobile suits down there. His eyes finally spotted Dearka that was sitting inside his light blue mobile suit, apparently busy running a status check on the Murasame.

And knowing that it had only been a few days since he last took a look at the Freedom's OS. There wasn't really much need for him to begin messing around with his mobile suit.

So with nothing better to do down there. The brown haired young man decided to offer the other mobile suit pilot his assistance, to make certain that the OS on the Murasame was just the precisely the way Dearka want it to be.

So after taking one last look around the hangar. He began making his way over to the blue Orb mobile suit, where he could quite easily hear a great deal of colourful grumbling and complaining coming out of the Murasame's opened cockpit.

"Hey Dearka, do you want some help in there?" Kira asked loudly.

Interrupting Dearka, just as he let out a new round of truly cheerful words, about why the heck things wasn't going the way he wanted them.

Yet once he heard Kira's voice he immediately stuck his head out of the cockpit. Where he looked his fellow mobile suit pilot over a second or two, before he once more disappeared back in to the blue Murasame.

"No thank you Kira. I think I'll be all right on my own!" The blond haired man call out of the mobile suit. Before he continued on with his unhappy bellyaching, that did make it somewhat clear that he was still facing a great deal of trouble in there.

Which made it kinda difficult for Kira to understand why he had refused his offer to help him out. So after blinking a few times in confusion and listening a bit more to the words that was coming out of the cockpit. He took a small step closer towards the mobile suit.

"Why not Dearka? It's not like I'm saying that you can't figure it out on your own. But from what I can understand by all of your complaining you could at least use a little help" Kira said. Once more cutting the other pilot off, as he was busy talking with himself why the heck it was so damn difficult to program a mobile suit's OS just the right way.

Hearing his friend ask him that. Dearka's head once more appear from inside the mobile suit.

"It's not like I'm not grateful for the offer Kira. But that stupid smirk you got on your face right now. Reminds me a lot of the same stupid smirk I use to have on my face whenever Miriallia and I have...well I'm sure you have figure it out by now!" He said with a somewhat grumpy expression on his face.

Honestly a bit surprised by that. Kira got a slightly red glow on both of his cheeks. He quite seriously didn't like the idea, that it was so easy for Dearka to tell, that he and Lacus had been making love not all that long ago.

Which made him mumble out a few word that was completely impossible to understand. Yet after doing that for a few long minutes he finally got his slightly dry mouth working again.

"Well you see I...aahhmm...! You are just saying that because you are jealous Dearka!" He hastlily said in a slightly angry tone. And with a small hard look in each of his two purple eyes.

Which was enough to make it somewhat obvious that he quite frankly didn't like talking about this with so many people around.

No matter what. The male Yamato had never really liked talking about sex all that much.

He firmly believed that something like that. Was suppose to be a private matter between himself, and his lovely wife. So he seriously hoped that this discussion would not last too long. And that nobody else would interfere in it.

If some of the mechanics heard what they where talking about right now. He was certain that more then half of them had a few comments.

Fortunately for him. Most of the mechanics was at the other end of the hangar playing poker or sitting around on the crates down there talking loudly with each other about the most trivial things.

Yet before he had time to be relieved about that. Dearka let out a somewhat displeased sound, which made Kira once more turn his gaze back towards his friend.

"Well duh! Of course I'm jealous Kira, I haven't seen my girlfriend even once in over a month now. So it's just so completely unfair that you have Lacus down here to spend your days with. While I'm sitting utterly alone in my room, with nothing else to remind me of the one I love, other then a picture with a crack up frame" he said, sound quite a bit like a small child that just couldn't get his way.

After that. He again got back in to the Murasame, with Kira standing there looking after him for an unknown number of minutes.

But finally after a deep long break of complete silence. The Freedom pilot let out a small breath.

"Ok Dearka I understand what you are saying. But you do realize that it wouldn't be many hours now, before you will see her again, so why don't you let me take a look at the OS? To be honest Dearka you don't really seem like you are in the mood to work on the OS in the first place!" The brown haired man said.

He did after all knew better then much pilots just how incredibly difficult it could be adjusting an OS just right.

Especially if you where almost completely freaked out. Kinda like the way his friend was behaving now.

Yet when Dearka once more stuck his head out of the cockpit. He had a slightly more calm look on his face, as he thought a few seconds about what Kira had just said.

And it wasn't all that much later before he let out a deep sigh. "All right already you can help buddy. I'm sorry about the way I talked to you, I'm just so stressed out at the moment that I don't know what to do with myself. I just can't shake this feeling that she might be in some kind of danger. And if that's the case I want to be there for her no matter what!" He said. Before he sank slowly down in to his seat.

Not seeing Kira nod a single time in understanding.

"Just try and calm down at least a bit Dearka, you know as well as I do that Miriallia is more then able to look after herself. And if she really is in kind of danger, you can be damn sure, that we are going to rescue her no matter the cost!" Kira said in a hard tone.

That was more then enough to make it completely clear to Dearka that his friend was, VERY serious about this.

"Thank you Kira. I'm relieved to know that you got my back pal. Now lets get back to work, if we actually do end up getting in to a battle out there. I want to make absolutely sure that this guy is ready to take on anything Zaft can throw at it!" He said, with a great deal of seriousness in his voice.

So with nothing else to say, the two pilots began checking, for any kind of errors in the Murasame's system.

They did however only get a few minor minutes of work in, before Dearka slowly leaned back in the cockpit and looked up at the ceiling with a worn out look in each of his eyes.

Yet after sitting there quietly for a bit. He reached out, and used both of his hands to pull himself out of the mobile armor transformed Murasame. Then jumped down to the floor, where he immediately began making his way over to the soda machine that was standing at the other side of the hangar.

"What kind of soda do you want Kira? With all the yelling and complaining I have been doing the last few hours. I'm so thirsty that I could properly drain about the rest of the sodas on board the Archangel!" He said. While thinking a few seconds about how long such a task would actually take.

Yet seeing as his knowledge about the Archangel's supply on sodas was kinda low at this moment in time. It did not take long before he hurried shook those thoughts away.

He might be overly concerned about his girlfriend right now. But he could most definitely find something better to divert his attention, other then how many sodas that was store here on the Archangel.

Truth be told, he found the whole idea about trying to figure that out a bit ridiculous. But it wasn't really like he had all that much else to do, so he might as well waste his time thinking about the most bizarre things.

And with that decision made he continued, trying to figure out the answer, to his own little puzzle.

Yet when Kira call out and told him that he would like a coke.

Dearka turned and took a glance back at his friend, before he slowly walked the rest of the way over to the soda machine. His worn out mind still somewhat conflict about think about either the woman he love, or how many sodas that they had with them.

Yet once he reached his destination he couldn't stop himself from giving the grey appliance a hard kick.

Before he pressed down on two of the buttons on the machine.

"Damn it. I really hate not knowing what to do with myself!" He mumbled out in an impatient tone. Before he bent down and picked up the two cans of liquid that the machine had just spit out a few seconds ago.

And after making certain that it was the right once. He slowly turned around and began making his way back to his blue mobile suit.

Once back there he immediately handed Kira the coke. Who slowly reached out and took it without looking away from the control panel in front of him.

"Thank you Dearka" he said in a somewhat far away tone. Just as he opened the can and took a big mouthful of the brown bubbling liquid inside it. After that he placed the small tin object not far away from him, so he could always reach it, whenever he needed to satisfied his thirst.

And after making completely sure that it would be quite hard knocking the can over. His fingers once more began typing away at the small keyboard.

Seeing him do that. Dearka again let out a big sigh, as he sat down on the stairs that lead up to the cockpit of his Murasame, once somewhat comfortable there he slowly reached out and opened his own can where he immediately took a small sip of the yellow liquid he liked so much.

"How long do you think it will take Kira before it's ready to go?" He asked in a quiet tone.

Hearing him ask that. Kira slowly moved his glance away from the small screen, and up at his obviously still anxious friend. "Hm that's a bit hard to say Dearka. But if I had to guess I would say about an hour, there is a few minor errors in the programming. But nothing serious, it shouldn't be that hard to fix" the brown haired pilot of the Freedom said, while again reaching out after his soda.

Smiling a bit at that. Dearka nodded a single time in understanding.

"That's great, happy to hear it" he said. Just before he slowly closed his two purple eyes and disappeared back in to his own thoughts, there wasn't really all that much he could do, to help his friend out.

So for now the only thing he could do, was wait patiently until Kira was done with the minor adjustments to his Murasame. He just hoped that he wouldn't suddenly find some enormous problem with the OS.

If that happened there was a big chance he wouldn't be able to go with Kira and Cagalli when it was time to leave. But one small glance over at the hard working Freedom pilot did calm him down a bit.

As he once more saw the beautiful face of the woman he loved with all of his heart. "Man, I really do look forward to see her again" he mumbled out in a small voice, that nobody else but himself could hear.

And as he continued thinking about all of those nice things he truly loved about the gorgeous woman, that two years ago had quite easily convinced him to stay down here together with her. Which was in his eyes definitely without a doubt the most clever decision he had ever made in his entire life.

He might only have been living with the strange little family for a few short years. But he could without lying say that he felt even more close to them now, then he had even done with his real family.

And he would most definitely do everything possible to protect the people he cared so much about.

And with those thoughts roaming through his head he slowly opened his eyes and took a look around the hangar.

Not that there was all that much to see down there right now. Most of the mechanics present was at the other end of the hangar either play cards or talking loudly with each other about how tiresome it could be sitting down at the bottom of the ocean with nothing to do.

Yet quickly realizing that those guys wasn't really saying anything interesting.

Dearka let out a small yawn, as he took another small sip of his soda, truly enjoying the taste of the yellow tasting liquid as it ran down his throat. After that he slowly lean back up against the Murasame. And just sat there for a long time watching the ceiling with a bored expression on his face.

It did however not take very long. Before he remembered something he wanted to ask Kira about, so after throwing his empty soda can down on the floor he turned and looked back at his still hard working friend.

Yet once he saw him take a small break in all of his typing. Dearka immediately opened his mouth and asked the one question he wanted an answer to.

"Kira back in the last battle when the two of us was helping out the Minerva, why did you suddenly stop fighting like that?" The blond haired man asked, in a curious tone. Not once removing his gaze from the other mobile suit pilot.

That by now was looking up at him with two wide spread eyes. That made it pretty clear that he was somewhat shocked over hearing this question.

And even true. Kira seriously didn't want to talk about what had happened back then. He could easily tell from Dearka's expression that there was no way he would get out of this conversation, without at least giving him some kind of reply.

"It's...it's kinda hard to explain Dearka. But if I really do tell you, please promise me you will keep it a secret especially from miss Murrue" the pilot of the Freedom said, while thinking back to how utterly crushed the brown haired woman had been, when they all thought Mu died in the last war.

But as things looked right now. He wasn't entirely sure any longer if that was what really happened to his big brother figure.

Feeling a tiny bit surprise by Kira's request. The former Zaft soldier couldn't help but blink a few times.

"Ok Kira! I swear that no matter what you are going to tell me, I wouldn't breath a word about it to anybody. Especially the captain!" Dearka said. Just before he slowly ran two fingers over the left side of his chest in a promising manner. That was supposed to convince his friend, that he was determined to keep this promise no matter what.

But even after that it took a couple of very long minutes. Before Kira finally began talking again in a somewhat far away tone. "To tell the truth, I'm honestly not entirely sure about this Dearka. But when the two of us flew over the fleet of Earth Forces ships, I could senses Mu's presence down between them" he said almost in a whisper, as he continued sitting there thinking about the blond man.

Hearing Kira say that. Dearka almost fell down from his location on the small ladder he had been sitting on this entire time.

"What are you sure about that Kira!" He asked in a loud tone, that could pretty much be heard through the entire hangar.

Yet fortunately for them, the few mechanics down there was just so far away in there own things, to give the mobile suit pilots all that much attention.

They all just figured, that they where talking about the Murasame and nothing else.

And once Kira had made completely sure, that neither of the mechanics was paying attention to them. He again looked back towards Dearka.

"As I said, I'm not really sure about anything right now Dearka" he said. While thinking a few seconds about the many friends that had lost their lives at the Second Battle of Jachin Due.

It truly was utterly depressing just thinking about it. So still with a slightly sad look in his eyes he slowly shook those sad memories away.

"You know as well as me Dearka, what condition the Strike was in after Mu used it, to cover the Archangel from the Dominion's last attack. And that's why it truly is somewhat hard to believe that he actually managed to survive that. Which is why I don't want miss Murrue to know about it. If it was somebody else I sensed down there on one of those ship. I don't want to bring her hopes up by telling her that he is still alive" he said, with a deep serious look in his purple eyes.

Not really needing a whole lot of time to think about a reply to all of that. Dearka nodded slowly in agreement.

"You are properly right Kira. So for now we will just keep this little discussion between us, until we can figure out what the hell is going on" he said in a quiet tone.

While he continued sitting there, wondering why in the world La Flaga hadn't returned back home to miss Murrue and the rest of them a long time ago. Had he really been alive since he was shoot down in the Strike two years ago.

And even true Dearka would quite frankly wanted to ask Kira about that. He knew that his friend was most likely thinking about the same thing, and had no answer to any of the questions that was flying through Dearka's mind.

"Damn it. I really wish I knew what the heck is going on" he muttered out in a angry voice.

As Kira gave a brief nod in agreement. "Yeah tell me about it. Unfortunately there isn't really much we can do about it right now. So I guess we just have to wait until we run in to him again" the brown haired man said in a slightly sad tone.

Just as he moved his hands back to the keyboard in front of him. Where once more began typing away. Trying hard to correct one of the minor errors.

And with nothing else to say. Dearka once more let out a small sigh as he slowly closed his eyes. Now having yet another thing added to the enormous list of things he needed to give some serious thought.

And one short glance at Kira. Was more then enough to tell him that he too, was thinking quite thoroughly about all of this. He wasn't really concentrating as hard on the typing as he was before.

000000

Meanwhile elsewhere on the ship.

Murrue had just finished reading her second manga when she noticed Mayu stirring a bit in her sleep, which could only mean that it wouldn't be long now before she wake up.

And it didn't even take a minute before a couple of sleepy eyes was slowly opened.

Yet once Mayu realized that her mother was in there. She immediately closed them again, desperately hoping with all of her being. That her mom hadn't noticed that she was awake. If she had, there was a very huge possibility that she would have to clean up in there. And she really didn't want to do that right now.

Unfortunately much to her mild misfortune. It did not take long before she felt a pair of kind eyes studying her face.

Which made it somewhat hard for her to keep on pretending that she was still fast asleep.

And once she made the minor mistake to take a quick glance up at the caring face not far above her, she immediately tried to roll over so her mother would still think she was far away in dreamland.

Yet much to her grand dislike it only took a small second before a voice began talking to her in a kind tone.

"Mayu sweetheart, I know that you are already awake. So would you please stop pretending that you are still asleep?" Murrue asked.

Making extra sure to keep a close eye on all of her daughter's movements, incase she would try something else, to get out of the hard task. Which she most definitely already knew, was waiting for her.

And not really all that surprising the brown haired girl hurried reached down and pulled the cover up over her head, quite obviously still trying her hardest to convince Murrue, that she really was fast asleep.

Unfortunately for Mayu. This was far from the first time Murrue had seen her daughter make that move.

So after smiling a bit at her silliness. Murrue slowly reached out and took a hold on the cover, which she gently pull away from Mayu's face.

Once gone she sat there a few brief seconds just watching the two slightly innocent eyes that was now looking up at her. "Good morning Mayu. Did you have a good nights sleep?" Murrue asked her daughter in a sweet tone.

Looking at her mom for a bit. Mayu let out a small displeased growling sound. Just as she slowly sat up on the bed. "I guess it was all right mom. As boring as things can be down here, there is at least nice and quiet when one goes to bed at night" she said.

While thinking briefly about how unbelievable noisy, the ocean could be from time to time back home. Especially if it was storming loudly outside. At least all the way down here, there wasn't anything like that to disturb her sleep. Something she was truth be told quite content with.

She did however not get long to think about that. Before her mother's gentle voice pull her back out of her thoughts.

"I see, I'm happy to know that you had a good nights sleep Mayu. Because you are seriously going to need some of that energy now, by helping me clean up in here Mayu. No matter how much time goes by, I don't think I will ever be able to understand how you can make so much mess on your own" Murrue said.

Before she let both of her eyes slowly run over the enormous' amount of things. That was laying spread out pretty much all over the floor.

Hearing her mother say that.

Mayu too took a look down at the floor. "Is that really necessary mom? I just woke up a few minutes, so I'm still feeling a tiny bit drowsy. To tell you the truth I wouldn't mind sleeping a few hours more, I could really use it!" The girl said, trying her best to sound as worn out as possible.

While at the same time letting out an enormous yawn. That could only be described as exaggerating at the highest scale.

Seeing her do that. Murrue slowly roll her eyes a single time. "Seriously Mayu this place looks even worse then a war zone, and it's not like it's going to kill you using a little time to clean up in here. I don't get how in the world you can live like this, you can barely get from one end of the room to the other" the brown haired woman said. Looking straight in to her daughter's eyes.

Those words alone was more then enough to make Mayu let out a big unhappy growling sound, as she slowly looked away from the brown gaze that was watching her. "You don't know that for sure mom, I could end up breaking an arm or something" she said in a tone. That made it pretty clear for the captain of the Archangel that Mayu really didn't want to do this.

Murrue however didn't really feel all that sorry for her.

If she didn't want to clean up in here. She should have thought about that, before she made such a big mess in the first place. So while still looking in to her daughter's eyes. The brown haired woman slowly leaned forward a bit.

"Well if that's the case then you be better hurry and pick up all of your toys. That way you wouldn't risk accidentally falling over something in here and get badly hurt honey. Now then will you please stop wasting time Mayu and get out of that bed. I'm sure that if the two of us works together, it wouldn't take us long to get this place completely spotless" Murrue said

Making sure to use a slightly bossy tone, that was more then enough to make it clear to Mayu. That she seriously didn't want to hear anymore bad excuses to get out of cleaning this place up.

And quickly realizing that there really was no way out of this.

Mayu couldn't help but let out a big tired sigh, as she slowly moved the cover away, and sat up on the bed where she tried one last time with her most adorable puppy dog look.

Unfortunately it was far from the first time Murrue had seen her daughter with that look on her face. So she was pretty much immune towards it. No matter how cute Mayu could make it.

"Why don't you start by pinking up all of your toys and books Mayu, then I'll go down and pink up a few clean supplies, we are clearly going to need them a lot right now!" The brown haired woman said.

Just as she slowly stood up from the bed and began walking over towards the only way out of the room.

With Mayu watching her until the door flew shut after her.

And once she was gone the brown haired girl again let out a deep displeased sigh. "I had really hoped that it would take a few more days before anybody would notice the slightly messy condition of my room" the eleven-year-old girl mumbled to herself.

Not even realizing that she would most likely have resisted just as much to the whole cleaning up thing. No matter which day this tiny mess had been discovered.

Yet knowing that it wouldn't take long before her mother would return. Mayu unwilling crawl out of her bed, and sat down on the floor where she somewhat absent minded began gathering together all of her mangas, so they would be much easier to put back on the shelf where they belonged.

But even as she was doing that. She couldn't stop herself from thinking about how utterly boring this was, and how long it would take before she and her mother was done cleaning her entire room.

It truly did seem like it was going to take the rest of the day getting the many objects in there, put in proper order again. Even true her room was far from the biggest one on board the Archangel.

Maybe once her mother got back here, she should consider asking her, if she couldn't just move to the room next door. That way she didn't have to waste all of this time organizing her toys and mangas.

Yet even as those thoughts was making their way through her head.

She realized that there was just no way her mother would even say yes to a suggestion like that, and with that in mind she stood back up and began slowly placing the mangas where they rightfully belonged.

"Damn, why is it always more fun making a mess then cleaning it up?" She quietly asked herself. While she slowly placed one book after another on the small shelf.

But as she stood there wondering about that. The door to the room flew opened again, and in came her mother carrying a great deal of things she obviously thought they where going to need to get this place somewhat livable again.

"You just continue with that honey. Then I'll begin sorting your toys, that way you can quite easily put them where you want them. Once you are done going through all of you mangas" Murrue said in a gentle voice.

While smiling a bit at her hard working daughter. That was obviously still very unhappy about having to do all of this.

Yet knowing that this task wouldn't take nearly as much time, as her little girl feared. Murrue didn't really feel too sorry for her.

"Once the two of us is done in here, why don't we go down and get something to eat, and maybe rest a bit in the hot spring after that?" She asked, with a truly caring expression on her face.

And just hearing those words was all that was needed to make Mayu's face lighten up a tiny bit. It truly had been a very long time since the two of them had last been able to spend some time together.

Her mother had after all been quite busy since they had left Orb. And knowing how big her responsibility was, by being the captain of the enormous white space ship. Mayu had made the somewhat tough decision to try and not disturb her too much.

Especially if she was busy talking with somebody else. There truly was no way for her to know if it was something important they where discoursing.

But deep inside she truly had missed some of her mother's attention. And she would frankly be lying quite a bit if she said that she wasn't already looking forward to spend some time with her.

"That sounds really great mom, lets hurry up and get this room cleaned that way we have the whole day together!" She pretty much yelled, as she hurried kneel down and pinked up another stack of mangas from the floor.

Yet even as she was doing that. She asked her mother if they could play a few board games, once they where done with their small dip in the hot spring.

Which Murrue of course immediately answered yes to.

And just hearing that one word, was all the persuasion Mayu need to begin working that much faster. The small brown haired girl figured that the faster she worked the quick the two of them could start having fun.

To be continued.


	29. Chapter 29

I'm sorry this chapter took so long.

But they have been tearing down a building next to where I live. And all that noise the works has been making has made it kinda hard to concentrate on writing.

Chapter 29

Even true most of the day on the Archangel had been somewhat nice and calm.

The evening was far from the same. Truth be told the entire ship was full of activity as the Freedom and Dearka's Murasame was being prepped to leave the ship.

And that meant that most of the ships mechanic staff was quite busy right now. Fortunately everything was in proper order as the Freedom gundam was placed on the catapult.

But even as it was standing there with it's two passengers on board. It couldn't leave just yet. Seeing as it was required that they opened the hangar door at the bottom of the ocean, they had to make completely sure that there was nobody left in the hangar before the two mobile suits could leave.

And once that task had been carried out, it did not take many minutes before the hangar door was slowly opened.

"We'll be going now miss Murrue, we will see you once we get back!" Kira said in a slightly loud tone.

Just as he reached out and activated the Phase Shift armor. After that he got the Freedom moving and began making his way towards the exit of the hangar, with the blue Murasame following not that far behind.

Once the two machines was safely out in the salty water, both pilots took a quick look around to make sure that there was no threats nearby. "Are you ready to get going Dearka?" The Freedom pilot asked.

While looking out at a small steam of more colourful fish, that by now was making their way past his gundam, without a single care in the world.

"Hmm it's pretty obvious that Erica Simmons didn't make this machine to function under water. It's movements are kinda slow down here, compare to how fast it can go up in the air!" Dearka said in a thoughtful tone, a small past of him feeling somewhat relieved that they had yet been forced to do battle down here.

If that where to happen, he was pretty sure he would be more of a burden then anything else.

And with that in mind he again looked back at the Freedom. "Perhaps the next time we meet up with miss Erica. We should tell her to start working on a Orb water-type mobile suit" Dearka suggested. While taking yet another look around out there, a more childlike part of him, truly hoping to be fortunate enough spot some kind of sunken treasure nearby.

Yet as he was busy doing that. Kira was giving everything his friend had just said some serious thought. The entire thing about Orb having it's own water-type mobile suit might just be a good idea.

The whole country was after all surrounded completely by water. So it would without a doubt be quite useful was a machine like that ever created.

But even as he was thinking about how such a mobile suit would look. Another question enter his mind. "If Orb did have a mobile suit of that kind Dearka, would you rather pilot that then your Murasame?" Kira asked. While he slowly lifted the Freedom's right hand, and gave an enormous shark a small light nudge with one of the fingers.

Not enough to actually hurt the dangerous creature. But still enough to make it turn around and swim of as quickly as possible.

And once it was completely out of his sight. Kira once more turned his attention back towards the Murasame. Still waiting for Dearka to give him an answer of some kind. "Well as useful as I think such a machine could be to Orb. I honestly think I'll stay put in my Murasame for now Kira! As far as I know most water-type mobile suit are somewhat slow, and that's not really something I like" Dearka said in a quiet tone.

Just as a big bunch of ugly looking fish swam directly over his mobile suit.

Yet as the two Coordinators was busy discoursing all of this. The third person out there, was starting to get somewhat tired of listening to them. "I'm deeply sorry to interrupted you guys, while you are so busy talking about what my country's money are suppose to be used for. But the two of you do realize that we got a meeting to go to, so could we please get moving and stop wasting time down here!" Cagalli said in a loud displeased tone from where she sitting behind Kira in the Freedom.

And even true both of the pilots would quite frankly have liked to continue their conversation. They each knew that it was properly a wise idea not to test the blond haired woman's patience right now.

They where after all suppose to be reunited with Athrun in just a short while. And that was clearly something the Orb leader had been looking forward to most of the day.

Yet before any of the men had an opportunity to say anything back to her. She once more began talking in a loud bossy tone.

"If you idiots keeps on insisting to talk about the most useless things. You can take me back to the hangar, so I can get the Duel Rouge!" She said, not doing anything to hide that she was getting quite low on patience. And if they didn't get moving soon, things was going to be very unpleasant for the two pilots.

She was to tell the truth, already considering giving Kira a good smack on the head.

Yet before she could actually carry out that somewhat violent plan.

Her brother slowly turned around and looked back at her. Where he gave her a small yet reassuring smile. Which really did calm her down a tiny bit, at least until she heard his next words.

"It's not like we are in a big hurry sis, we got over an hour before we actually have to be at the location Miriallia mention in her message. And we ain't really that far away from the meeting place. So we got more then enough time" he said.

Before he once more looked back out in to the water that was surrounding the Freedom. Truly enjoying the sight of all the life that was peacefully continuing on with it's normal routine. Like finding something eatable, or avoiding some of the bigger predators out there, who had the idea that some of the smaller fish was suppose to be their dinner.

But as he was sitting there watching all of this. He did not notice the deep angry frown that was slowly yet steadily growing in size on his sister's forehead.

And it was only once she reached out and grap on to his shoulder. That Kira finally looked back at her. Where he could easily tell from her expression that the mood she was presently in, was far from a good one.

"I swear on my father's reputation Kira. That if we don't get moving in the next five minutes, I'm going to knock you and Dearka's heads together so hard, that there wouldn't be a single thing left in there that will ever function properly again" the blond short tempered woman threaten in a tone, that made it kinda hard to figure out if she was actually serious about what she had just said.

And not really knowing what to say back. Kira only blinked a few times. As he turned and looked back at her, where he immediately noticed the somewhat unhappy look she had in her eyes.

Which made it pretty obvious, that she found this whole experience as entertaining as watching grass grow. Even true Kira was certain that there was many people in this world that would have very much liked seeing all of these fish in their natural habitat.

Yet knowing that his sister didn't want to see all of this now. Kira thought quite hard about what he should say to her, that would not give him a large painful bump on his head. He did however not get long to think about that.

Before his friend over in the Murasame interrupted his thoughts, by wanting to share his opinion on this whole matter.

"Well with that kind of persuasion we don't really have much choice, we better get moving Kira before she actually starts threatening to kill us both. Beside there isn't really much point in us staying down here. And I would like to get there before anybody else shows up, so we can take a small look around the area, to make certain that it's not some kind of trap. And that they are not holding my lovely girlfriend hostage!" Dearka said. Not doing anything to hide that he was still greatly concerned about the woman he loved and what the three of them where actually heading in to.

Not having any problems understanding the logic in everything Dearka had just said.

The pilot of the Freedom gundam nodded slowly in agreement.

He too somewhat worried about what could happen once they arrived at their destination. And if they had to fight either Zaft or somebody else to save Miriallia.

"You are right Dearka! But one last thing before we go, if this really does turn in to some kind of battle once we get there, your only task will be to get to Miriallia as quickly as possible, nothing else matter. You just get her safely away from the area, that's the only thing you need to concern yourself with, meanwhile I'll stay behind to cover you and make sure that there is nobody around that try's to prevent you from getting to her!" Kira said in a very serious tone.

Not really needing a whole lot of time to think about that idea. Dearka knew that this was without a doubt that this was the best thing to do, if this actually was some kind of well thought out trap.

He knew that there was no way in hell he would ever leave that place, if it turned out that Miriallia truly was in some kind of danger.

And with that in mind he felt a deeply determined look appear in each of his purple eyes.

As he slowly turned and looked over at the Freedom. Where he began talking in a somewhat far away tone.

"You got yourself a deal Kira, and thank you" he said, truly grateful that his friend knew just how important this was to him.

And with nothing more to say to each other, it did not take long, before the two mobile suits turned around and took of towards the place where this so called 'meeting' was suppose to take place.

All three of them pretty quiet, as they where all busy thinking their own thought, about all of this.

000000

Meanwhile on the Archangel three people was watching as the two mobile suits disappeared from their sight.

"I really hope they will be all right, and that they don't run in to something they can't get away from on their own" Murrue said in a slightly worried tone. Just as she took a small sip of the coffee Andrew had given to her not long ago.

Yet once the liquid enter her mouth she immediately spit it back in to the cup. She usually liked most of the experimental coffees he made, but this one however was to put it simple way to strong for her taste. Which kinda made her hope that he hadn't made to much of this.

She seriously didn't think there was anybody else other then himself on board the Archangel that would be able to drink this.

He on the other hand seemed to be enjoying the badly tasting coffee, as he slowly turned around and looked back at her. "Hm I don't really think you have to be too worried about them, both the blond princess and Dearka is quite good with a gun if need be. And with Kira in the Freedom, I seriously doubts there is many people around that want's to mess with them" the Desert Tiger said, while taking a small mouthful of his coffee.

Thinking a few seconds about those words. Lacus slowly turned her blue gaze over towards the coffee loving man.

"All of us here knows you are right about that Mr Waltfeld. Yet no matter what, it will always be so difficult to just stand back and watch, as three of the people one truly cares about is heading off in to danger. I do not think there is even a single person here on this ship. That can truthfully say that they like to sit around back here and wait, without having anything to do" the pink haired woman said.

Just as Kira's handsome face appeared in her mind.

Yet before she could do anything to stop herself, she started thinking about what the two of them had been doing this morning, which was more then enough to make a light red glow ran over both of her cheeks.

But fortunately for her, neither of the people gather up there had the necessary time to actually notice her red face. Before the small door to the bridge suddenly flew open, and in came the youngish crew member of the ship.

"MOM, MOM! I CAN'T FIND THE FREEDOM! IT'S NOT DOWN IN THE HANGAR! PLEASE TELL ME THAT THE THREE OF THEM DIDN'T JUST LEAVE WITHOUT SAYING ANYTHING TO ME!" Mayu yelled loudly.

Pretty much forcing every single person present up there to immediately cover up their sensitive ringing ears, as the brown haired girl's high piercing voice echo loudly through the bridge.

And once Mayu was finally done trying to frighten away about half of the fish in the ocean around them.

Murrue slowly opened her eyes and took a glance over at her extremely loud daughter. To make sure that she wasn't going to yell anything else in that high volume.

Yet once it became completely clear for her, that her little girl wasn't planing on yelling anything else at least for now. The brown haired woman somewhat cautiously moved both of her hands away from her ears.

And while glaring a slightly at the small girl. Murrue reached up and used her right hand to softly rub her ear, attempting to reduce some of the massive pain that had been inflicted on it, a few minor seconds ago.

"Mayu dear...there is really no need for you to shout like that, it's not like any of us up here is completely deaf" she said in a in a somewhat gentle yet firm tone.

"Well if we weren't deaf when she got here, I am pretty sure we at least took an enormous step in that direction" Andrew muttered. While truly wondering just how in the would such a tiny person could actually yell so loud. It frankly was a bit amazing now that he was actually giving it some thought.

Yet he just seriously hoped that the girl wasn't going to yell like that again anytime soon.

He might be missing both his left eyes and arm. But that certainly did not mean that he wanted to lose his hearing on the left side too. It was however pretty obvious from her expression, that her mother's words had been enough to calm the slightly hysterical girl down a bit.

Which was to tell the truth somewhat of a relief to him.

There was however one person up there that realized that if one of them didn't give Mayu a reply soon. She might just began to yell like that again. And that was not a risk Lacus wanted to take.

"Well the reason why they didn't tell you that they where leave Mayu. Is because your mother told us that you had fallen asleep, after spending most of the day along with her, having fun. So neither Kira, Cagalli or Dearka wanted to disturb you, while you where sleeping so peacefully" Lacus explained.

Before she slowly stood up from the chair, she had been sitting in since she got there. And made her way over to the small girl, which she pretty much saw as the little sister she had never had.

And once over beside her she kneel down and looked directly in to Mayu's eyes.

"I'm just as concerned about them as you are Mayu. But it truly wouldn't do any good sitting around up here just waiting for Dearka's Murasame and the Freedom to show up again" the pink haired woman said.

And even true she actually did sound pretty calm at the moment, all of them could easily tell. That she was deeply worried about her husband.

But even with all of those concerns going through her mind. She once more opened her mouth and began talking in the same calm tone as before. "So instead of sitting up here thinking and worrying about them, why don't we go down to the mess hall and join the rest of the crew? I'm pretty certain that most of them are getting ready to get some nice warm supper just about now" she said, while smiling gently at the eleven-year-old girl.

Who on the other hand did looked a bit thoughtful at her words. Yet after thinking it over for a minute or two, the girl finally nodded a single time.

"Ok big sis, but both mom and grandpa Waltfeld has to come too!" She said. While taking a glance away from Lacus' caring eyes and over at the only male present in the room. Where she immediately noticed the slightly displeased expression on the Desert Tiger's face.

Which made it pretty clear to her, that he didn't like it when she called him grandpa.

Not that there was a single person on board the Archangel who actually liked it, when she called them that. That however did not really bother Mayu all that much.

Once she had made up her mind about giving a certain person some kind of title. They just had to live with it, even if they didn't like it.

But even true he kept having that somewhat unhappy frown on his forehead. He still nodded yes to go with the rest of them down to the mess hall and get something to eat.

Truth be told he was actually quite hungry right now, and wouldn't really mind getting some grub down in to his stomach. Especially if it was in the company of some of the people he truly cared about.

Truly delighted to know that grandpa Waltfeld would be joining them. Mayu quickly turned her gaze over towards her mother. Who at this moment was giving her a small caring smile.

"Why don't you run on ahead sweetheart and find us a table? That way we are sure that the four of us can sit together" Murrue said in a friendly voice. As she stood there with her head tilted a bit to the side, watching her daughter think hard about what she had just suggest.

Yet finally after a few long minutes Mayu nodded eagerly a couple of times. "All right then! I'll see the three of you down there in a bit. And please hurry up, I don't want to sit down there on my own!" She yelled loudly before she turned around on one foot and rush full speed out of the room. Not even taking the time to wait and see if her three family members, was actually following her.

Which pretty much meant that she didn't notice the looks the three of them where giving her. "No matter how much time goes by, I don't think there will ever come a time, where I'll be able to understand how she can have so much energy. Even after being entertained through most of the day" Murrue said, with a exhausted look in both of her eyes.

Hearing the captain of the Archangel say that. Lacus took a small glance away from the door and over at her. "Do you want for her to change miss Murrue?" The girl asked with a hint of curiosity in her voice, as she once more looked back at the door.

Now thinking quietly about some of the girl's more bizarre pranks. Like that time she pour the green paint over Mr Murdoch.

That truly had given most of the crew quite a big laugh.

There was even a few who had claimed that moment, had been even more entertaining. Then that time when Kira and her had dumped the bucket of water on top of Athrun and Cagalli, which was one of those things a few of the crew members was still trying, even now to figure out the reason for.

Not that Kira or her where planing on telling them anytime soon.

Yet as Lacus stood there with her thoughts occupied with Mayu and the past.

Murrue was thinking very hard about the question the younger pink haired woman had just asked her. It did however only take a few seconds to come up with some kind of reply.

"She might drive me crazy from time to time Lacus. But there is no way I want her to change, I love her just the way she is now. But at times I kinda wish that she had a little least energy. Yet that's properly something most parents wish for at times!" The woman said in a thoughtful tone.

While seriously wondering just how in the world reverend Malchio was able to keep all of those children living at his house under control.

He was after all completely blind. So it had to be hard for the kind man to figure out when all those kids where up to no good.

But perhaps one of the reason why he was able to make all of them behave somewhat properly. Was because there was so many people around that was more then willing to help the blind minister out. Like Kira's mother and Myrna.

Especially now that the married couple wasn't working there any longer. The two women's assistance was properly even more appreciated then before.

Yet as the captain stood there thinking about how life was going for the people back home, a certain Tiger suddenly interrupted her thoughts.

"Both of you do realize that the longer we stays up here, the low Mayu's patience gets. And being yell at like that once, was more then enough for me" the one eyed man said. With a great deal of seriousness in his voice.

Immediately figuring out what the Desert Tiger was talking about.

The two women took a small glance over at each other, as they thought about how long it had been since Mayu had ran off. And when both of them realized that it had been about ten minutes since the girl had left the bridge.

They each knew that they where properly in for quite an earful once they got down there.

"We better hurry up and get moving, before she actually decides to come all that way back here to look for us. Hopefully she found somebody else down in the mess hall to talk with, while she is waiting for us" Lacus said, then slowly moved her reached up to removed some of her long pink hair, that just happened to be hanging down in front of her eyes.

Once that simple task was accomplish. She again turned her attention back towards the other woman up there.

That was slowly nodding in agreement to everything she had just said, and seeing as they had nothing else to talk about, the two women began making their way over to the door. With the Desert Tiger following closely behind them.

Which pretty much meant that it only took a couple of minor seconds. Before the bridge was completely empty for people, most of them either down in the mess hall getting supper, or somewhere else on the enormous white space ship.

000000

And while that was happening down on the Archangel.

Miriallia was at Crete looking out over the ocean and at the slowly descending sun.

But even true it was without doubt an extremity pretty sight, she really didn't give it all that much attention. She was far more interested in her watch right now.

Which told her that there weren't many minutes left before both her friends and the two Zaft soldiers was suppose to arrive. Yet up until now there wasn't really many signs of life in the area.

It almost seemed a bit like she was the only person that had been there in ages. And she was seriously starting to wonder if anybody else other then herself could find this place.

"If they don't show up soon, then it would properly be best for me to just leave. I don't want to be out here by myself when it gets dark!" The brown haired journalist muttered quietly to herself.

Just as she turned and took a small glance over at her car to make absolutely sure, that it was still standing at the same place, where she had left it not that long ago.

She did however not get much time to watch the green vehicle. When suddenly a well know white and blue mobile suit, shot full speed out of the ocean not that far away from her.

But even as Miriallia land on her butt. She looked up at the Freedom, as it spread out it's ten long wings.

"Kira you big idiot! There is no need for you to make an entrance like that, there is nobody else around here for you to show off to, other then me!" She yelled loudly even true she knew, that there was noway her friend could hear her inside the Freedom gundam.

Yet just as she got back up on her feet a Murasame came out of the ocean not that far away from the other mobile suit. Which once more served to make her fall on her behind, while glaring angrily at the two mobile suits.

"I seriously hope for your sake, that you ain't just doing this to get a good laugh!" The brunette said, as she once more got back up on her feet. Still glaring somewhat displeased at the two war machine, that clearly was getting ready to land.

Yet once she saw both of the Murasame's feet touch the ground. She immediately shook away the tiny amounted of anger she was feeling.

Then began making her way over to the mobile suit. Badly able to keep down her excitement over finally being able to see the very person, she knew was inside the blue machine. It had after all been quite a few weeks since she had last seen her boyfriend.

She was already looking forward to once more being with him. And having all of their little moments together.

Like drifting off to sleep with his two strong arms wrapped around her, or tiptoeing it to the shower when he got home from work. All of those little things that made their relationship special.

Yet once she saw the cockpit of the Murasame flew open, all of those romantic thoughts immediately disappeared from her mind, as she saw the man she loved with all of her heart slowly lowing himself down to the ground.

"Dearka!" She called out in a truly happy tone. As she race full speed towards him with her arms stretched out ready to give him the biggest hug ever.

Seeing his girlfriend coming right at him. Dearka was just about to yell out her name too, when he took notice of how fast she was running right now. And one look at the ground, was more then enough to make it clear to him, that if she knocked him over now. He was in for quite a hard and unpleasant landing.

Seeing as most of the ground, was pretty much covered with rocks. "Hey! Slow down Miriallia, before one of us gets hurt!" He shouted out in a loud tone, that could be heard all over the place.

But even as those words left his mouth he saw his beautiful girlfriend leap away from the ground heading straight for him.

Yet just as the slightly panicking male closed his eyes, and mentally prepare himself for the pain that he was sure was about to come. He only felt a pair of thin arms being wrapped around his neck.

"Hey you, scared you there didn't I?" A sweet voice he hadn't heard for a long time ask him. And as he slowly opened his eyes again, he immediately had eye contact with the very person he had missed so much these last four week.

Just the whole experience about finally being able to see her two lovely deep blue eyes again. Was more then enough to make Dearka somewhat speechless.

And it was only once she repeat her question, that he succeeded in getting his mouth to work again. "Yeah you did. I was pretty sure that you where going to knock me over on to all of those rocks you naughty girl. But never mind that now, you do realized that I have missed you a lot since you left. It really has been torture being away from you this long" Dearka told her.

His gaze not moving away from her even once.

And seeing as it had been quite a long time, since she had last heard the man she loved say such romantic words to her, a light red glow slowly appeared on both of her cheeks.

But even true she was feeling somewhat embarrassed at the moment, she just couldn't bring herself to look away from him.

"I have missed you a lot too Dearka" she said almost in a whisper, as the two of them began moving slowly towards one another.

And was just about to share their first kiss in over four weeks. Yet just as they where about to press their yearning lips together, a familiar female voice suddenly cut in to their special little moment, and forced them to pull away from each other.

"I'm truly sorry to interrupt you guys reunion. But we got company now!" Cagalli said in a serious tone. As she looked up at the two Zaft mobile suits that was slowly descending downwards towards their position on the ground.

And just the sight of the yellow GOUF he had been fighting against in the last battle. Was more then enough for Dearka to reach in to his jacket to make sure that his gun, was where it was suppose to be.

Yet once he was completely sure that the weapon was ready to be used he took a small step forward. So that now he was standing directly in front of his girlfriend.

But even as he was doing that. Kira was looking the red gundam over, he had no trouble at all recognizing that mobile suit. It had after all been following him around through most of the last battle.

And he could truthfully say that he was a bit curious about who exactly was piloting that machine.

Yet as he stood there watching each of the mobile suits get ready to land. He took a glance over at Dearka which was all he needed to tell. That his friend was ready to pull out his gun, at a moments notice.

If any of the mobile suit should do anything suspicious. Yet neither of them looked like they where actually going to attack them, while they where just standing there.

But maybe it was some kind of trick to try and get their hands on to the Freedom. That most certainly was a possibility, it wasn't really the biggest secret that his mobile suit had been made by Zaft in the first place.

And perhaps with all of the things the Plants and Gilbert Durandal was doing right now. They had some sort interest, in trying to get the Freedom gundam back under their control.

Not that Kira was ever going to allow such a thing to happen.

It had after all been Siegel Clyne that had given him that mobile suit in the first place. And in Kira's eyes, he had a responsibility to his father-in-law to make sure that the Freedom was used to protect Lacus and everybody else Kira cared about.

So there was just no way in hell he would permit anybody to take that machine from him.

And with that in mind, he again took a small glance over at his fellow mobile suit pilot. "Be on your guard Dearka! We don't know a thing about these guys, it might still turn out to be some kind of trap!" The brown haired teen said.

While he stepped over in front of his sister. Utterly determined to protect her no matter who was inside those two mobile suits.

Yet as both Kira and Dearka looked a bit like they where just about ready to fight the two Zaft machines with their bare hands. Cagalli couldn't help but roll her eyes a single time, as she stepped over and placed a hand on her brother's shoulder.

"You two seriously need to calm down a bit. I'm pretty sure that they really are here just to talk with us. I might not know the slightest thing about that gundam. But I remember that GOUF from what little time I spend on the Minerva, and that's Nicol's mobile suit no doubt about it!" Cagalli said.

Before she slowly turned her gaze away from the yellow mobile suit and over at the red one, truly wondering if it really was Athrun that was inside that machine.

But as she was doing that both Kira and Dearka was looking over at her with a somewhat shocked expression on their faces. "You can't seriously be telling me that the guy I fought in the last battle was Nicol!" Dearka said in a loud tone.

Yet before the blond woman had anytime to answer him.

The cockpit hatch on both mobile suits flew open, which meant that it did not take long before they saw the pilots slowly low themselves down to the ground.

But even true Cagalli's words had calm the two men next to her down a bit. They both looked a bit like, they where still ready to take on these guys, if they where up to no good.

And it was only when they saw both of Zaft pilots pull of their helmets. That Kira and Dearka finally stopped looking like they where ready to get in to a fist fight, at any moments now.

But even true it had been a long time since they had last seen and talked with each other. None of them said a single thing for almost five whole minutes.

They just kept on standing there watching each other, like this was the very first time they had ever meet.

And it was only when Athrun took a glance away from Kira and over at the Freedom that he finally opened his mouth and began talking in a somewhat angry tone.

"Why did you do something that foolish Kira? Don't you get what you did in the last battle?" Athrun asked. Not doing a thing to hide the angry glare that he was now sending his best friend.

That on the other hand didn't say anything back. He just kept on looking at Athrun, like he was actually trying to read his mind or something like that.

But while he was doing that.

The deep silence became to much for somebody else. And before Kira had the time to come up with a response. Dearka took a small step over towards his two old team mates.

"The reason why, we did something that foolish, as you so nicely call it Athrun. Was because we did not want you guys to destroy the entire Orb fleet. Don't you realize just how many people would have been kill had the Minerva had actually succeeded in firing of it's positron cannon. It really would have been a massacre at the highest scale!" The former Buster pilot said. Having almost immediately realized that these guys where not here to have a nice and calm conversation.

Hearing him say that. Both Athrun and Nicol turned their gaze away from Kira, and over at their old comrade, where they both immediately noticed the slightly angry glare he was giving them.

"Well in my eyes, the only thing you guys did was spread confusion around the battlefield. You didn't do one thing back there, that actually helped somebody out! It would have been much better, if you guys had just stayed out of the whole thing!" Athrun yelled loudly. While Nicol nodded slowly in agreement.

But even as the GOUF pilot was doing that. Kira let out a small sound that made it pretty clear, that he firmly believed they where both wrong about that.

"I wouldn't deny, that we did mess things up a bit back there Athrun. But I'm actually quite relieved that we choose to interfere when we did. If we hadn't done that you guys and the Earth Forces, would most likely have kept on fighting till there was not a single one of you left!" Kira said angrily.

With a look in his eyes that made it pretty clear, that he already knew that he was exaggerating a bit.

Yet even true both Athrun and Nicol truly did want to say something back.

They each knew that he was somewhat right about that. There really was no doubt, that the battle would have been even more horrible had Kira and the others not forced the Earth Forces to pull back.

The silence however didn't last long. Before Nicol finally began talking in a displeased voice.

"I honestly do believe that you are right about some of the things you just said Kira. But this is a war we are fighting, and if you guys keep on interfering like that. This war will never end, we will continue fighting each other forever. Is that truly what you guys want?" The green haired man asked.

While taking a quick glance between the four of the people he had been fighting together with two years ago.

But even true Nicol was somewhat impatient about getting some kind of answer. They all just kept on standing there watching him, with a somewhat unreadable look in their eyes.

And it was only when Cagalli let out a big growling sound, that they all turned their attention over towards her.

"That's seriously has to be the dumbs question I have heard. The one thing I truly wish for with all of my being is for this war to end as quickly as possible" The blond haired woman said in a hard tone. While she slowly moving her eyes away from the green haired man and over at her fiancée.

Where she pretty much immediately got eye contact with him. Which was more then enough to cut her off before she could say anything else.

But even true it was pretty obvious for all of them. That both Athrun and Cagalli truly longed to be with each other again.

It did not take much time before Athrun pretty much forced himself, to look away from the beautiful eyes of the woman he loved. And turned his slightly sadden gaze downwards towards the ground.

"If that's truly what you wish for Cagalli, you and everybody else should go back home and try to get Orb out of that treaty with the Earth Forces. By doing that you would make completely sure, that Zaft wouldn't have to go up against Orb again. Which would make it a lot easier for us to bring peace back to the world" the blue haired man said.

Truly hoping that the woman he loved would listen to the advise he was giving her.

Yet before he had the time to try and figure out what she was thinking about.

Kira let out a small laughing sound.

"I'm not entirely certain what's going to happen, should Zaft be the once to win this war. But I quite honestly has my doubts, that things are going to be as peaceful as the Chairman describes in his broadcasts. I don't trust that man any further then I can throw the Freedom" Kira said, in a mocking tone of voice.

While he hurried took a brief glance over at his mobile suit, before he again looked back at his best friend, that by now was watching him with a surprised expression on his face.

And he did not have to wait for long to hear Athrun's reaction to what he had just said about the Chairman.

"If you actually have seen his broadcasts Kira, you should already know what the Chairman is trying to do. He really is an honorable man!" Athrun said, while using a few minor seconds to think about, just how much respect he had for the Chairman.

He did however not get long to do that before Kira interrupted his thoughts.

"If that man is actually is as honorable, as you say he is Athrun. Would you mind telling me why in the world he needs a fake Lacus Clyne? Why does that man find it necessary to have a copy of my wife speaking his case, and telling the whole world just how great and noble Zaft's cause is?" The brown haired man said.

Making completely sure that both Athrun and Nicol knew just how much this whole fake Lacus thing, was bothering him.

Yet even true Nicol was somewhat taken by surprise that the Lacus working along side the Chairman wasn't the real one.

Neither him or Athrun had any time to come up with some kind of reply to what Kira had just said. Before the Freedom pilot continued talking, now in an even more angry tone then before.

"And now that we are talking about my wife. Maybe one of you guys would be so kind as to tell me, why a squadron of Coordinators tried to murder the real Lacus. Just after the Chairman, started having that fake one running after him!" The male Yamato asked.

While glaring a few times between Athrun and Nicol.

"Yeah that's actually one of those things I have been thinking a lot about too. Those bastards even had their mobile suits with them!" Dearka said, while thinking a few brief moments about those green water-type mobile suits, Kira had fought against back home in Orb. No matter who those guys where, they clearly knew how to use those machines.

And with that in mind. He again looked back at his two old comrade.

"And even true it has been sometime now since I was a member of Zaft. Even I could easily tell who those machines belong to. So don't even try and come up with some kind of story that Zaft knew nothing about that attack. If nine newly assemble mobile suits suddenly disappeared, I'm pretty certain that somebody back at the Plants, would have known about it!" Dearka said, in a somewhat challenging tone.

That pretty much dared, the two Zaft soldiers to come up with some kind of explanation. To everything Kira and him had just said.

But even true it was pretty obvious for all of them, that both Athrun and Nicol was greatly shocked over learning that somebody had actually had tried to kill the pink haired woman.

It did not take long before Athrun slowly narrowed his eyes as he looked a few times between his two old friends. Honestly having are hard time believing that both of them could be this gullible.

"I do understand what you guys are saying. And if somebody actually did try to kill her, then that's unforgivable. But what I'm curious about knowing is how all of you can be so damn sure that it was Zaft that was behind that assassination attempt. Couldn't it have been somebody else that was using Zaft mobile suits? Like those guys that tried to dropped Junius Seven?" Athrun asked. Not doing anything to hide that he was disappointed at how easy his two friends had been fooled.

But while Athrun's words did make a little sense.

Kira was far from ready to say that his best friend was properly right about everything he had just said. If there still was people out there somewhere that wished to take Lacus' life.

He was surely going to do everything possible to stop them, even if it meant he had to fight against Athrun again. "I don't know for sure if it was truly Zaft that tried to kill her Athrun!" He said, with a deeply hard look in both of his eyes.

Which made it pretty obvious that if either of the two Zaft soldiers had something to say. They should say it now before he continued.

"But no matter how much you try and deny it Athrun, all of our clues does point in that direction. So if you honestly believe that we are wrong about who it was that tried to kill my wife. Then would you please show us some proof, that we can take her back home to Orb. Without having to worry about some Zaft soldier trying to take her away from me!" Kira said loudly.

As he stood there staring directly in to his best friend's green eyes. Just waiting to hear his response to all of this.

And as much as Athrun truly wanted to say something, that could convince Kira and the others to head back home to Orb. He somewhat bitterly realized that he had nothing to say at the moment that would completely convince his best friend that Lacus had nothing to fear from Zaft.

And with that in mind he slowly narrowed both of his eyes a bit.

"You know as well as I Kira, that I have nothing to show you that would be proof enough to convince you to go back. But I promise you that both Nicol and I will look in to the whole assassin attempt, once we get back to the Minerva!" Athrun said in a slightly determined tone.

While the green haired man beside him nodded a few times in agreement.

Yet as the two Zaft soldiers was trying to figure out what they where going to do when they got back on board the Minerva. Cagalli was looking at her fiancée with a slightly shocked expression on her face.

"Ain't you coming back with us Athrun? Don't you want to come with us back to the Archangel and everybody else?" She asked in a deeply depressed voice, as she stood there looking sadly at the man she was suppose to marry one day in the future.

And it was just about that time, Athrun took a small glance away from Kira and over at her. But before he could actually come up with some kind of answer to her question, the two of them end up looking directly in to each other eyes.

Which was more then enough to make both of them somewhat speechless, as they each tried to come up with something to say. And it was only when Cagalli began softly fiddling around with the engagement ring.

That Athrun unwillingly tore his eyes away from her and looked down at the ground. Doing his best not to show her and the other just how depressing this entire thing truly was for him.

He did after all love her with all of his heart.

So it truly did hurt quite a bit inside, that he knew he had to disappoint her with his response. But even so, it wasn't like he could just come and go from Zaft as he pleased.

"I'm a Zaft soldier now Cagalli, which means I have a responsibility both to the Chairman for reinstating me, and all of those people back on the Minerva. I'm fighting together with to put an end to this war!" He said in a loud tone that could be heard all over the place.

Even by that certain red haired girl who had been listening in on the whole conversation.

Yet before she had anytime to be relieved that he wasn't going to leave with these people. Somebody else began talking in a loud voice.

"That's really quite honorable of you Zala. So you have a responsibility towards a man that you a not even sure is telling you the whole truth, and the crew on the Minerva. But what about your fiancée, don't you have some kind of responsibility towards her?" Dearka asked.

Before he hurried took a short glance back at his girlfriend. Who had been standing behind him since Athrun and Nicol had gotten there.

He did however not get much time to watch her. Before Athrun's voice pull his attention away from her and back towards him. "Of course I have a responsibility to Cagalli. Which is why I need to go back to Zaft, so I can help them put a stop to this war as quickly as possible!" Athrun said.

Actually sounding a bit like he was insult, that Dearka would even ask him stuff like that.

Yet before either Dearka or Cagalli could think of something to say about him going back to Zaft. Kira took a small step over towards his friend. "So what you are saying is. That you are going to continue fighting as long as the Chairman tells you to?" The Freedom piloted asked.

Still with that hard somewhat unreadable look in each of his eyes.

Hearing his friend asked that. Athrun immediately turned his gaze away from the former pilot of the Buster gundam, and over at his best friend.

"That's right Kira, I'm going to stay with Zaft, and help them defeat the Alliance, they are after all the once to blame for this whole disaster!" He yelling, while thinking a few minor seconds about how utterly insane the Earth Alliance had act since the Break the World incident.

"I see. So you are going to be a part of Zaft from now on, and you are going to keep on fighting the Alliance? But what about Orb are you going to fight against them too Athrun?" Kira asked.

Not once taking his purple gazes away from his blue haired friend in front of him. While he continued standing there waiting to hear what his friend had to say about the whole Orb thing.

And he did not have to wait all that long.

Before he saw Athrun give his low lips an extremely hard bite, actually succeeding in making a little blood run away from them, and down his chin, not that he noticed that. All of his attention was after all turned completely towards Kira.

"I truly don't want to go up against Orb. But if it continues to assist the Earth Forces, then I really don't have any choice but to fight against it. Which is the reason why I think it would be best that all of you go back home as quickly as possible, and get Orb out of that treaty. If you don't do that, then Orb will most definitely continue to be my enemy!" Athrun said loudly.

While he took a small glance down at the ring on Cagalli's left hand. Yet when he slowly lift his gaze up at her beautiful face, he couldn't help but notice a single lonely tear making it's way down her right cheek.

Which truly served to make this entire experience all that much more painful to him.

And as much as he tried to ignored it, there was no way he could deny that there was an extremely big part of him, that just wanted to reach out to her and pull her in to his arms. And just keep on holding on to her for the rest of his life.

Yet he knew that if he did end up doing something like that, there was no way he could ever bring himself to leave her again, which meant that if they didn't get out of there soon.

He would most likely say something stupid that could be misinterpreted like he was going to betray Zaft. And with that in mind he took a small glance over at Nicol.

That had been surprisingly quiet through most of the conversation. Which actually made Athrun wonder, why Nicol had decided to join him in his search for their old comrades in the first place.

He did however not get much time to figure that out. When the pilot of the yellow GOUF apparently noticed that Athrun wasn't really giving the other people there all that much attention.

And seeing as the deep tense air that was surrounding all of them right now, was almost insufferable now. Nicol decide to ask his friend if it wasn't about that time the two of them should consider seriously leaving this area.

And immediately after that simple question had left his mouth. Everybody gather there all turned their attention over towards him.

But even true it was somewhat unwilling that Athrun answer that question. He did it anyway, doing his best not to show his fiancée and everybody else there he cared about his true feelings about having to leave this way.

"You are properly right Nicol. I'm certain that the captain and everybody else back on the Minerva are wondering where we are. It really has been quite a while now since we left!" Athrun said. As he and Nicol began making their way back to their mobile suits.

But as Nicol continued on without saying anything to his old comrades. Athrun turned after a couple of steps and looked back at them again.

"I seriously hope that you guys will consider taking my advise. Hopefully the next time we see each other will be back in Orb, once this war is finally over" he said in a loud tone.

Before he once more continued the rest of the way over to the Saviour gundam. That had been standing quietly beside the yellow GOUF all of that time the two of them had been here.

Which meant that it didn't even take five minutes. Before the two Zaft machines left the ground, and took off in the exact same direction they had appeared from not long ago.

And once both of them where completely out of sight. The blond haired woman there couldn't stop herself from letting out a long depressing sigh, as the man she was in-love with once more disappeared out of her life.

And she knew for sure that if Kira and the others hadn't been there next to her. She would most likely be crying her eyes out right about now.

She had truly believed with all of her heart that once she and everybody else meet up with Athrun again. He was going to come with them back to the Archangel.

Truth be told she had honestly never thought that he was going to leave again, after the two of them had been apart for such a long time.

Yet as all of those depressing thoughts where flying through her mind.

She suddenly heard Dearka let out a deep tired breath. "So what now Kira? Are we going to follow his advise?" The Murasame piloted asked. Not bothering to do a single thing to hide, that he was quite exhaust after this long conversation between them and his two old team mates.

But as much as he would like to just crawl in to a bed somewhere and sleep a few hours with Miriallia in his arms.

He knew that now wasn't the right time to be thinking about something like that.

"I would definitely be lying to you guys if I said that there isn't a small part of me. That truly wished that I could believe it, when Athrun says that Lacus' life isn't in any kind of danger from Zaft!" The brown haired man said.

Before his wife's happy face slowly ran through his head.

"Yet no matter what Athrun says, it still can't be denied, that we have already faced one attack by Zaft mobile suits. And there is just no way I can calmly go back to Orb, without some clear proof that she is not going to be hurt by anybody!" Kira said in a loud determined tone.

As he finally looked away from the direction Athrun and Nicol had disappeared in a few minutes earlier.

And when he got his gaze over on his two friends and his sister he immediately noticed the slightly depressing look they all had in their eyes. Especially Cagalli looked totally crushed over the fact, that Athrun had chosen not to go back with them to the Archangel.

So after watching her sad expression a bit longer.

He took a single step over towards her, where he slowly lifted each of his hands and gently brought them up around her. Hugging her softly as she rest her head in his shoulder for a few minor seconds.

But even as he was trying so hard to make his sister feel better about all of this.

He once more turned his attention back towards Miriallia and Dearka. Where he saw that both of them where just standing quietly waiting to hear what else he had to say about what they had just spoken with Athrun about.

"But the two of you do know, that you don't have to stay here. Each of you can go back home to Orb, if that's what you really want" Kira quietly said to them.

While he continued gently running both of his hands up and down his sister back. That was crying and rubbing her head up against his shoulder, obviously feeling a tiny bit of comfort. That there was somebody present there, that she did not have to hide all of these deeply sadden emotions from.

Yet while Kira was trying so hard to make his sister feel better about all of this.

The two other people there was watching Kira with a somewhat offend expression on their face. Neither of them liked the idea of just taking off while so many of the people they truly cared about was in trouble. But they both of course realized that the only reason Kira had even suggest for them to go back to Orb was because he was concerned about their safety.

And that small glance the young couple share. Was more then enough for each of them to know each other opinion about the whole matter.

So after giving his beautiful girlfriend a light smile. Which she of course immediately returned. Dearka took a small step over in the two siblings direction.

"As much as I appreciated your concern for both of us Kira. I can't just turn tail and run away from this whole mess. I do after all see each and every one of you on the Archangel as family. And I can't with good conscience just throw my things together and leave you all behind!" He said in a loud determined tone.

While the woman beside him nodded a few times in agreement.

As it now became her turn to say her opinion about what Kira had just said.

"I for one can't believe that you would even suggest something like that Kira. I might not be able to pilot a mobile suit, like you and Dearka. But somebody tried to murder one of my best friends. And I want to be there to protect her, and everybody else I care about on the Archangel!" She said, in an even louder tone, then the one Dearka had just been using.

And after taking a small breath, she once more continued her utterly determined speech. "So if you guys need somebody experienced to be in charge of the CIC. I'm more then ready to lend you guys a hand!" She said.

With a firm look in each of her eyes. That made it pretty obvious, that there was no way she was going to change her mind about this.

Hearing the two of them say all of this.

Kira looked at both of them over his sister's shoulder. And just the sight of how determined his two friends was about this, was more then enough to make a small smile ran over his lips.

"Thank you both of you. I'm really grateful for all of your help, and I'm sure that everybody else back on the Archangel appreciated it too" he softly said, as he slowly moved away from Cagalli.

Making absolutely sure, that she was ready to stand on her own, without falling over.

And after it became completely clear to him, that she wasn't about ready to drop to the ground any second now. He once more turned his attention over towards his two friends. Just as Dearka began talking in a somewhat thoughtful tone.

"You are welcome Kira, always glad to help out. But lets not talk about that now. As nice as the sunset is from here, I don't think it's wise for us to spend to much time here. You never know when somebody else take notice of those two guys!" He said.

Just as he nodded over in the direction of the Freedom and his own Murasame. That was still standing where they had left them, when they had first gotten there.

Hearing him say that. Kira took a small look over at the orange glowing sun, that had pretty much disappeared completely in the horizon.

And immediately realizing. Just how much time had gone by, since they had left the Archangel. He once more looked back at his fellow mobile suit pilot.

"I guess you are right Dearka. There isn't really much point in us staying here any longer, so we might as well hurry back to the ship. Lacus and the other are properly starting to get really worried about us" he said.

Just as his sister shook her head a couple of times, in an attempt to get rid of some of the more depressing feelings. That had been flying through her body since her fiancée had left.

"Then lets stop wasting our time here and get moving. I don't want to be here a second longer then I have to!" She yelled loudly. Before she turned away on one foot and began making her way over to the Freedom, with her two friends and brother walking closely behind her.

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Meanwhile not that far away.

Two mobile suits was flying slowly beside one another. Neither of the pilots saying anything each other. Seeing as they both had quite a lot on their minds right now.

Which pretty much meant, that the only noise that could presently be heard, was the soft humming sound each of the machines powerful engines was making. As they continued flying not far above the rocky surroundings below them.

Yet finally after about ten minutes of complete silence. Nicol slowly looked over at the red mobile armor transformed war machine beside him.

"Do you really think they'll follow you advise Athrun, and return back to Orb? You know how protective Kira can be of miss Lacus. So if he seriously believes that somebody is after her life. I don't think he and the others can just quietly go back home with a calm mind!" The green haired man said, in a highly serious tone.

Hearing him say that.

Athrun immediately brought the Saviour to a hold and got it over in to it's mobile suit.

"I know what you mean Nicol, I have been thinking about that too. So once we get back to the Minerva, I think we should try and see if there is any information about a bunch of mobile suits being stolen. We have quite busy the last few weeks, so perhaps it somehow avoid our attention" Athrun said, still not willing to believe that it had really been the Chairman that had send soldiers and mobile suits to Orb.

In an attempt to try and murder the pink haired woman he knew so well, there was just no way something like that could be true.

It just seemed impossible in Athrun's eyes. Gilbert Durandal was simply way to kind and noble. To even consider doing such terrible things, like actually trying to murder a person like Lacus, who had no way to defend herself.

The Chairman was after all the one. Who insist that all of Zaft's military resource was used for self-defense purposes only. And that this entire war was kept as bloodless as possible.

So there just had to be some other explanation to the whole assassination attempt. The two of them had been talking about with Kira and Dearka not that long ago.

And Athrun was completely determined to try and dig up some answers no matter what.

That way it might still be possible for him to convince Kira and the others to go back home to Orb. With the way things looked now. Athrun felt pretty sure that most of the Archangel's crew, would preferred to stay hidden away down in the ocean.

So if he could somehow find at little useful information that could tell him about how who had tried to assassinate Lacus.

Then he was sure, that he could prevent the Archangel and her crew from interfering in any of the future battles. That was most likely waiting not that far ahead for all of them on the Minerva.

And not having the Freedom and the white space ship drop in, to mess up the entire battle. Would without a doubt make things much easier. That much Athrun was sure of.

And with that in mind. He once more turned his attention back towards Nicol's GOUF.

Just as his green haired friend let out an enormous yawn, which made it pretty clear that the younger man was completely exhaust right now. Not that Athrun could blame him, neither of them had been having much time to relax since they had left the Minerva a few days ago.

"We better get moving Nicol. I know we are in Zaft territory, but you never knows if there is somebody nearby that wants to fight. And to be honest I'm not really in the mood fight with anybody right now" Athrun said in a slightly far away tone.

While letting his two tired eyes slowly ran over the rocky terrain, that the two of them where floating over.

And just one look down there, was all he need to tell that there was more then enough places for more then few enemy mobile suit to hide out. And seeing as both of them where completely exhaust, it was properly best they got moving before they got some nasty unwanted attention.

So with nothing else to say to each other. It did not take long before they where once more making their way over the rocky grounds, none of them noticing the small one person helicopter that was hiding out down in one of the minor canyons not all that far behind them.

Yet once the two of them disappeared from her sight. Lunamaria once more start the little machine, and got ready to once more go after her two friends.

"I seriously hope you guys are going home back to the Minerva now. I'm really getting tired of this wild-goose chase!" She mumbled. Before she again got her means of transportation airborne. And began heading of in the same direction the Saviour and the yellow GOUF had disappeared in not long ago.

To be continued.


	30. Chapter 30

Chapter 30

It was the day after Athrun, Nicol and Lunamaria had finally returned to the Minerva.

Not that Shinn cared all that much about that. Right now he was far more occupied with firing one bullet after another in to the target not that far in front of him.

But even true he did seemed to be concentrating quite hard on what he was doing.

One single look at his face. Would be more then enough to tell most people. That he was in a very crappy mood right now. And that it was properly a wise idea not to disturb him, or in some other way distract him.

"Damn it. Why the heck does those hellish nightmares keep pestering me? It's not like I have any problems remembering how, my family was kill!" The Impulse pilot mutter out in a hateful tone.

As he once again thought back to how the Freedom had been fighting those two Earth Forces mobile suit, just above him and the rest of his family.

Yet before he had enough time to start wondering why the heck those three bastards couldn't have found some other place to fight. His gun made a small clicking sound, that told him that the weapon was now empty.

Which made him lift his head and take a look over at the target, where he immediately noticed, that not even half of the shots he had fired, had actually hit their intend target. Which only served to piss him even more off.

"Damn you to hell!" He shout loudly. As he quickly pull his hand back, and throw the gun with as much force as possible. Straight towards the very thing he had been shooting at all of this time, making the handle of the small weapon hit the target directly between it's two bright glowing white eyes.

Not that his overly violent actions had much effect on the target.

"Man all of this is really pissing me off, we been stuck at this damn place since the Freedom and that blue Murasame blow the Tannhauser to smithereens. And I'm seriously bore out of my mind right now. Which is properly the main reason why I keep on getting all of these stupid nightmares. I really wish we could just hurry the hell up and get going!" He yelled, while giving the control panel in front of him a hard kick.

Which did nothing to relieve him from all the stress he was feeling right now.

As a matter of fact it had quite opposite effect. Seeing as the metal he had been so utterly determined to put at least a minor dent in, was quite thick. Which resulted in a small wavy of pain that immediately ran up through his foot.

"Well that definitely proves that I'm right, it really is going to be a bad day!" He muttered angrily to himself.

Just before he got somewhat comfortable on the cold metal floor, where he began softly rubbing his now sore aching foot. Trying to get rid of some of the minor pain he was still feeling.

Yet while he was preoccupied with that minor task. He didn't even noticed it, when his best friend enter the shooting range, where he immediately looked over at him with a slightly confused expression on his face.

"Good morning Shinn, what in the world are you doing down there?" The blond haired teen asked. Not doing anything to hide his curiosity.

Hearing his best friends voice. Was all that was need to make Shinn turn his attention away from his still aching foot. And up at his blond haired roommate and fellow pilot, where he almost immediately noticed the somewhat wondering expression that he had on his face.

"Ohh it's only you Rey. I didn't think anybody else would bother taking the time to come down here this early" the gundam pilot said, as he once again began rubbing his foot.

"I'm sorry if I interrupted you Shinn. But you still haven't answer my question, what's wrong with your foot?" Rey asked not once taking his eyes away from the short temper teenage.

Who was obviously thinking quite hard about what he had just asked him. And seeing as it was taking him so long to make up his mind about giving him some sort of reply.

Rey was pretty certain, that the red eyed teen did not want to talk about what was going on. Yet just as he was about to change the subject over to something else.

The pilot of the Impulse let out a long tired breath. As he slowly looked up at the ceiling, with a far away look in both of his eyes.

"It's not really that important Rey. I just been having my share of nightmares the last few days, which I'm sure you can understand can be somewhat stressful. So I kinda took out a bit of my frustration on the control panel" he said. Just before he lean back against the wall behind him.

Hearing him say that, and realizing what the problem was. Rey nodded a few times in understanding. Before he slowly reached up and rubbed his chin, in a thoughtful manner.

"Hmm I see. Maybe you seriously should consider going down and ask the ship's doctor to give you something to sleep on, you wouldn't be able to pilot the Impulse if you are completely exhaust. And it's not like you are the first soldier in existences, who is having problems sleeping at night!" Rey said in a tone. That made it pretty clear, that he took this subject VERY serious.

Thinking slightly about that advise. Shinn slowly shook his head a couple of times. "Nah I don't think that's necessary Rey. I'm absolutely positive that my nightmares will mostly disappear once we leave this place" he explained. With most of his attention turned upwards.

But even as he was sitting there, watching the grey ceiling like it was the most interesting thing in this world. He once more continued talking in the same far away tone as before.

"It's just that when we are sitting around here with nothing to do. My mind does have the tendency to wander off a bit, which does bring up some of the more painful memories of the past!" He said in a loud tone.

While he slowly reach up and gave the pink mobile phone in his pocket, a light squeeze as his sister's more cheerful smile appeared in his mind.

Yet while he was so far away in his deeply depressing thoughts about his sister. Rey was trying to come up with a solution, that would give his friend something to do while they wait for the Tannhauser to be repaired.

But seeing as they had been stuck here the last couple of days, and knowing that it would take some time before they got their next salary.

It was kinda hard to come up with an idea that did not required a whole lot of money, and would keep the short tempered teenage entertained, until the Minerva was fully repaired and ready to head out.

"Why don't you take a good long walk around town. That will give you some exercise and keep you occupied the next few hour?" Rey suggested. While still rubbing his chin in the same thoughtful manner as before. As he continued trying to think of something else the pilot of the Impulse could do.

Hearing those words Shinn slowly moved his hand from the small pink device, and looked up at his friend.

"I have already done that three times Rey. Which are to tell you the truth getting kinda boring. I actually think the only thing I haven't seen yet in this town is properly the sewer system, and that's not really one of those places I just have to see no matter what. But perhaps some other time" He said.

Just before he again reached down in to his pocket, to make extra sure that the pink cell phone was, where it was suppose to be.

Nodding a few times in understanding to that. Rey did his best to come up with another suggestion. When all of a sudden a loud growling sound could be heard from Shinn's stomach.

Which was more then enough to tell Rey, that his friend was starting to get quite hungry over there.

"Why don't we go down and get some breakfast, after that maybe we can play a few rounds of chess. Didn't you say the last time we played that you where going to beat me no matter what? Yet if my memory serves me right, I haven't yet experienced a defeat from your hands?" Rey asked. With a light hint of provocation hidden in his voice, which he knew was more then enough to goat Shinn in to accept his challenge.

And it didn't even take a second before Shinn slowly lifted his head and glared up at his friend, with a slightly angry glare in both of his red eyes, and a deep frown on his forehead.

But even true a small part of him did realize what Rey was up to, there was just no way in hell he even would back down from such an obvious challenge. He clearly needed to show Rey just how good he was a chess.

So with a deeply determined expression on his face, He hurried got back up on his feet, ignoring the light pain that was still running thought his right foot.

"You just bring it on Rey! I'm surely going to make you regret, that you even thought about challenging me to chess!" He said in a loud tone, which could properly be heard echoing through about half of the ship.

Not that the crew cared much about that, most of them where pretty used to hearing the pilot of the Impulse shout out like that. Especially if something was bothering him.

And just the sight of him jumping up in such a hurry, made a light smile ran over Rey's lips. As he slowly turned around and began making his way towards the exit of the shooting range.

"Hm ok then, if that's truly what you believe Shinn, then lets hurry down to the mess hall. So you can prove to me that you actually knows the difference between the knights and the pawns. I don't think I have to remind you how bad you where losing the last time we played" Rey said.

A part of him already knowing that these few words would most definitely piss Shinn even more off. Then he was already.

And it didn't even take a second before Shinn's voice could once more be heard echoing through the ship's halls.

"I did not lose that game Rey. You knows as well as I that we didn't finish that game, because we got interrupted by that attack on the ship!" He yelled as he hurried walked past his friend.

Not bothering to take the time and actually wait for Rey.

He want to get down to the mess hall as quickly as possible. So he could show Rey a thing or two about chess.

And just seeing the back of his friend disappear with such great speed. Rey couldn't stop himself from letting out a light chuckle, as he slowly walk after Shinn down the hall.

"He is still way to easy to provoke, I better make sure to talk with him about that, once we are done with our chess game" the blond haired teenage quietly promised himself. While wondering slightly, just how much more training was need. Before Shinn would finally be able to take out both the Freedom gundam and it's pilot Kira Yamato.

He did however not get much time to think about that. Before Shinn's voice came traveling down the hall one more time. "Hurry up Rey! I don't have all day to show you who the true master of chess is here on the Minerva!" He yelled loudly.

Before Rey once more heard him ran off. Most likely going the rest of the way to the mess hall, so he could find the very game he was so utterly determined to beat him in.

"And he doesn't have that much patience either. That's another thing I need to talk with him about later" he muttered, while he increase his speed slightly, so his friend wouldn't find it necessary to come and search for him one more time.

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Meanwhile elsewhere on the ship.

Lunamaria had just finished giving the captain her report about what she had heard and seen yesterday, when she had spy on Athrun and Nicol's meeting with some of the crew from the Archangel.

And the many photographs and the tape that was lying on the table. Was more then enough to tell Talia quite then a few things about. The white space ships view on her lover.

"You did a really good job Luna. By the way do you have any idea about which direction the Freedom and that blue Murasame disappeared in?" The brown haired woman asked. As she reached out and picked up the one photo where the two mobile suits could be seen standing right beside each other.

She might not have shown it all that much, when she had first heard the tape. But she was generally surprised that the pilot of the Orb mobile suit, used to be a part of Zaft. And that way both Nicol and Athrun was talking to him on the tape, made it pretty clear, that both of them knew him quite well.

And now that she was actually giving it some serious thought. She faintly remembered reading shortly after Nicol had became a part of her ship's crew, that one of his old team mates was call Dearka.

But even true she could clearly hear more then a few people call him by that name on the tape.

She was still having some serious doubts, if this was actually the same Dearka, that had been the pilot of the Buster gundam and a member of the Le Creuset team.

It was most definitely one of those things she needed to look in to once she was done talking with Luna. It seriously never hurt to know who exactly they where going up against.

She did however not get long to think about the blond man, who's face was appearing on more then one of the photos Luna had taken of the meeting. Before the red haired girl interrupted her wandering thoughts.

"I'm sorry captain, but they both disappeared down in to the ocean immediately after they took off, and there was just no way my helicopter could follow them down there. So I have no idea which direction they actually went in!" She explained in a tone, that made it pretty obvious that she was a bit displeased, that she hadn't been able to figure out anything else about the Archangel.

Nodding a few times to that. Talia put down the photo of the Freedom and the Murasame, then reach out and pink up another photo which clearly showed the four people Athrun and Nicol had been talking with on the tape.

"Now then, seeing as we have clear confirmation that it is that brown hair guy who is the Freedom's pilot, and that the one inside that blue Murasame is a former Zaft soldier. But what I'm really curious about knowing is who is that brown haired girl together with them, she is the only person on these photographs we don't have any information about" Talia said.

While she sat there quietly a few seconds. Just looking at the brown haired girl.

Yet no matter who she was. It was pretty obvious from the photos, that she had quite a close relationship with the blond haired man. Who was standing protectively in front of her, the entire time the meeting took place.

But while Talia was trying so hard to figure out how the young woman was mix up in all of this. Lunamaria slowly reach out and took one of the other photo that was showing the person they where talking about.

"I don't really know who she is captain, they didn't mention her name once while I was listening in, and she was pretty quiet through most of their meeting" Lunamaria said, while seriously wondering who exactly that girl was, and how the heck they could figure out some more about her.

She was a bit of a mystery in Luna's eyes.

The only time she had seen her before, was a few days ago. When she had spotted her talking with her two fellow pilots about something, But unfortunately that had been at the end of the conversation.

So she hadn't been able to figure out her name back then either. The only thing Lunamaria knew for certain. Was that she had somehow sat up the meeting between her two friends, and the people from the Archangel.

"If you want me to captain. I can try and see if I can dig up some more information about her. I'm sure that at least somebody around town, knows a little about who exactly she is" the red haired girl said.

Before she again placed the photograph down on the table, while waiting somewhat impatiently to hear what the captain had to say about that suggestion.

And it did not take many seconds. Before the captain, looked over at the female pilot, with a slightly thoughtful expression on her face.

"Hmm I do see the logic in what you are saying Luna" the brown haired woman said. As she slowly placed her own photo together with all the others that laid spread out all over her table.

After doing that, she once more continued talking in the same thoughtful tone as before.

"Yet if that young woman went along with the others back to wherever the Archangel is hiding. I don't believe there is much point, in having you run around all over the city searching for her. It's not like having a little information about her, will bring us any closer to the Archangel's whereabouts" Talia said, with a deep serious look in both of her eyes.

Hearing the older woman say that.

Lunamaria nodded a single time in understanding. While trying her best not to show the captain, that she was actually somewhat relieved that she did not have to take off on yet another wild-goose chase.

"I see captain, then I'll stay here for now. Yet I most admit I'm a bit curious about what you are planing to do with all of those photos and that tape. It's not like any of it gives us a definite clue to find the Archangel, or what it's objective is?" The red haired girl said.

Before she took a brief glance down at all the photos, she had taken only a few hours ago.

Thinking thoroughly about what the girl had just asked her. Talia began gathering together all the photographs, while a tiny yet thoughtful vein slowly appeared on her forehead

"You are properly right Lunamaria, there isn't really overly much important information in this. Yet I still think it was a good thing we got it, you never know when the most insignificance things can be useful, in a desperate situation. Yet for now I'll keep it, until I can give it either to the Chairman or somebody else who can figure out a way to use it properly" she said. While wondering if her lover, could get anymore out of this information then she had.

Immediately realizing that the captain was quite far away in her own thoughts right now. Lunamaria decided to keep quiet until the captain was ready to continue with their conversation.

Yet as she stood there not doing anything. The deep exhaustion she had been feeling since she got back here last, night finally caught up with her.

And before she could do anything to stop herself. She let out a small yawn. That she truly was doing everything possible to hide.

But even with all of her strong effect, it still caught the captain's attention.

"If you are really that exhaust Luna you should have said so. I take it that keeping an eye on those two for such a long time was a pretty tough assignment. Yet seeing as we have nothing more to talk about at the moment you can go. Just do me a favour, and don't mention your mission to anybody. Just forget everything you heard back there!" Talia said in a slightly bossy tone.

Feeling somewhat shock at hearing the captain request that of her. Lunamaira found herself blinking a few times in confusion. As she wonder why it was so important that she kept quiet about her mission.

Yet realizing that she truly didn't feel like getting in to a longer discussion right now.

The red haired pilot decided that it was properly best that she follow the captain's orders. And with that in mind, she slowly lift her hand and gave the woman in front of her a small salute.

"I don't really understand why it's necessary to keep it a secret, but I'll make sure to keep my mouth shut around the other crew members captain. Now then if you will excuse me. I think I'll head down and get a little breakfast before I go back to my room!" She said.

Actually succeeded in sounding a tiny bit more energetic, then she really was.

And it was just after that sentence had left her mouth. That her right hand dropped away from it's position by her head, and was now once more pointing downwards towards the slightly dusty floor.

Hearing the girl say that. Talia smile a bit at the obvious exhaust girl.

"Please make sure to enjoy yourself Luna. It wouldn't be long now before the Tannhauser is fully operational again, which means that we will head out for our next assignment tomorrow" the brown haired captain said.

While turning her gaze away from the female pilot and down at a few piece of paper on her desk. That told her what supplies, that had been load on to the ship today.

Not totally pleased with the idea that she only had a few unknown numbers of hours to relax in. The sleepy red haired teen made the decision not to waste anymore of her valuable time in there.

She wanted to get back to her room as quickly as possible. So she could finally start on the very book she had been looking forward to read. Ever since the captain had asked her to spy on Athrun and Nicol.

"I'll see you later then captain. If there is anything else you need to know about my mission, please don't hesitate to call me!" Luna said, before she turned around and began making her way over towards the door.

With Talia watching her until the door flew shut behind her.

After that the short haired woman once more turned her attention downwards, towards the small mountain of paper, she needed to look through. Before the Minerva was ascribe to leave this place.

Yet just the sight of all the paper, was more then enough to make her somewhat long for a hot cup of newly made coffee, there really was a lot of things that required some of her attention right now.

"Hmm it would properly be best that I put in a request to get a few more beam rifles, we are kinda low on them, seeing as we haven't gotten any in our supplies since we left Armory One, and we have lost a great deal of them since the Junius Seven drop" she mumbled quietly to herself.

While using a couple of minor seconds. To try and figure out, exactly how many rifles the ship's pilots had gone through up until now.

Yet in the end she decided, that it wasn't really all that important how many they used. Just as long as they didn't suddenly run out of them someday in the middle of a battle against somebody.

And with that in mind, she turned her chair over and began working on the keyboard that was build in to her desk. Putting in a request to get at least five brand-new beam rifles, before it was time for the Minerva to leave tomorrow morning.

000000

At the same time down at the bottom of the sea.

There was a certain young man who was quietly watching the ceiling. As his lovely girlfriend was resting peacefully on top of him. And even true Dearka Elsman could honestly say that he would normally enjoy a situations such as this.

Now was not one of those times, simply because he really needed to go to the bathroom right now.

Yet he just couldn't bring himself to wake her up, especially since it had been such a long time since they had last had the opportunity to sleep beside each other like this.

Yet it was became more and more difficult for him to lay still. Seeing as he had pretty much stay there for two hold hours now, just waiting and hoping that she would at some pointing roll away from him.

It was however becoming pretty clear that she had really missed snuggling up in to his arms, like she was doing at this very moment in time.

And if anybody asked him he seriously wouldn't mind spending the entire day with the beautiful woman in his arms.

Yet as of right now, it was becoming quite urgent, that he at least got a few minor seconds apart from her. "I'm really sorry about this Mir. But there is just one small thing I need to do, then I'll be right back" the blond man whispered. While he slowly moved his hands away from her waist and up to her shoulders where he gently tried to lift her off.

He did however not have much luck with that, seeing as Miriallia apparently even in her sleep didn't like the idea, that she was being removed from her comfortable resting place on his chest.

So just as he was about to gently put her down on the bed just beside him. Both of her thin yet strong arms flew out and quickly wrapped themselves around him.

And before he had anytime to react. She once more snuggled back in against him, where she immediately let out a deep content sigh, as she continued her happy trip in dreamland.

And as cute as she looked right now. Dearka just couldn't help but find her actions just a tiny bit annoying.

"Ahh man Mir! You really are determined to make my bladder blow up" he quietly complained. As he slammed his head back in to the pillow, that was laying behind him. Now once again looking up at the ceiling, trying to come up with a new idea to move her away for just a second so he could get out of the bed.

Yet as he was thinking about that the brown haired woman slowly opened her eyes and looked up at him. "You truly do have a way to say the most romantic things to me, don't you?" She asked with a small teasing grin on her face.

Just as she rubbed her head back and forth a few times, against his muscular chest. Which she had pretty much been resting on, since the two of them gotten in to the bed last night.

Hearing her sweet voice ask that. Dearka immediately turned his gaze away from the ceiling and downwards at the woman he loved, where the first thing he saw was that grin she had on her face, which made it clear to him that she was in a teasing mood right now.

"I truly would be lying if I say that I didn't enjoy having you in my arms again. But there is just one small thing I need to take care of. So could you please let go of me Mir?" He asked, truly hoping that she wasn't going to find some mean way to tease him, before letting him go.

And once he noticed the grin on her face grew just a tiny bit in size. He couldn't help but feel slightly nervous about what she had planed.

Yet just as he was starting to expect some kind of tricky prank. She slowly moved her arms away and roll to the side. Which pretty much made him jump out of bed as quickly as it was humanly possible, before she had the opportunity to carry out her plan.

He did however not get far before he heard a sweet voice began talking to him in a deeply caring tone. "You better hurry back. It feels awful lonely in this bed all by myself" She said. Just as she playfully blow him a small kiss.

Seeing her do that. Dearka made a quick motion like he actually caught it, before it could get too far.

"Count on it my beauty, I'll be back so fast that you wouldn't have any time at all to miss me!" He said in a slightly loud tone, as he turned around and hurried left the room, utterly determined to get his small trip to the bathroom over and done with, as quickly as possible.

So he could once more get back to bed, and just laid there for the rest of the day holding on to her.

Yet once he was gone Miriallia leaned back against the soft thick pillow behind her.

"Hm maybe, I should have been a nice girlfriend. And told him that he was only dressed in a pair of box shorts and T-shirt" she mumbled. With a small amused smirk on her face.

Just as the door flew back open, and her from time to time dense boyfriend stepped back in to the room.

Where he immediately bent down and pink up his pants, which he hurried pull on. Before he turned around and once more left the room, with a slightly embarrassed expression on his face.

"He is just so cute, when he is being a scatterbrain like that" the young woman sighed. While she slowly rubbed her right cheek against the pillow, truly enjoying how soft it felt against her face.

She did however not do that for long, before she turned over and looked up at the ceiling.

Seeing as Dearka and her had been apart for so many weeks. A small part of her was already starting to miss having him there beside her. Even true it had only been a few short minute since, he had left their room the second time.

"I seriously hope he isn't planing to spend the rest of the day, down in the bathroom" she said quietly to herself.

Before she narrowed both of her eyes a tiny bit, now thinking about how nice it had been last night. To once more feel his two strong protective arms being wrapped around her.

It truly was great to know that there was somebody just beside her at night. It just didn't give her the same safe and secure feeling to cuddle with her pillow, as it did with the man she loved with all of her being.

"Maybe if the two of us is a bit lucky, we can spend the rest of the day in here together" she mumbled in a somewhat dreamy tone. As she thought about how long it had been since they had last done something like that.

Yet before she could really start daydreaming about just how the two of them could spend their day together. The silence was suddenly broken by an extremely hard knock on the door, which Miriallia realized could only belong to one certain person.

And it was only now that her roaming thoughts had been so shiftily pull away from the one she had missed the most these last few weeks. That she realized that there was actually a great deal of people, she had missed and wanted to talk too again.

Now that she was finally back on the Archangel where she rightfully belong. Fighting along side the many people she loved and cared so much about.

So while still thinking about that. She slowly sat up on the bed and looked over at the door. "Please do come in Mayu, you don't have to stay out there!" Miriallia call out.

Just as the door to the room immediately flew open, and in came the small brown haired girl.

Which Miriallia could truthfully say was like the little sister she had never had.

Yet before Miriallia could get her mouth open and say anything to the eleven-year-old girl. Both of Mayu's small feet left the floor, as she jumped full speed towards the very thing Miriallia was sitting on.

And after she land just beside her on the bed.

Both of Mayu's tiny arms flew out and wrapped them self around the older girls neck, while she immediately pressed her little face up against Miriallia's shoulder.

"It's so great that you are finally here big sis. I have really missed you a lot these last few weeks. It's just not the same if all of us isn't together!" She call out in a loud happy tone, while she kept on hugging the other person on the bed.

Not doing anything to hide just how exciting she thought it was, to have her third big sister figure here on the ship together with the rest of their somewhat strange little family.

If big brother Athrun was here too, then everything truly would be prefect in Mayu's eyes. Yet for now she was just completely and overly delight that at least one of them had return.

She was already looking forward with great expectation to spend some time together with the slightly older girl. "It's great to see you too Mayu. What have you been up to these last few weeks?" Miriallia asked.

While she slowly moved away from the other girl, and looked over at her with a slightly curious look, in each of her blue eyes and with a caring smile on her face.

Hearing her ask that. Mayu got a somewhat thoughtful look on her face, as she tried to come up with some kind of reply.

"Well you see big sis, there isn't really much to do down here, I have been playing a few pranks on grandpa Murdoch. Truth be told, I actually think he is still a bit mad at me for the last one!" Mayu explained, as a small devilish grin ran over her lips.

Seeing that. Miriallia couldn't help but roll her eyes a single time, as she slowly shook her head. Even with all of those months she spend on board the Archangel two years ago.

She knew that it required a special type of bravery to actually play pranks on the chief engineer.

His slightly cranky attitude, kept most people from even considering joking around with him. And as far as she remembered, it was only her boyfriend and Mu who had actually done something like that in the past.

Yet apparently Mayu was also one of those few people. That wasn't totally freaked out by some of the nasty things, the large mechanic would say when he was truly pissed off about something.

"I guess it's a good thing that Mr Murdoch is such a kind person. I can still clearly remember the very first time I met him" Miriallia said, as she used a few seconds to think about the past.

Before she once more continued talking about her first impression of the chief engineer.

"Back then I actually thought he was a bit scary. It was only later that I realized that the way he would some time yell at us, was his way to make certain that nothing bad would happened to any of us!" She said.

As he thought a few short moments about some of the more colourful things. She had heard the large man yell at some of the other mechanics, when they had done something wrong. It truly wasn't the most friendly things he would say to them.

Blinking a few times at that, Mayu nodded slowly in agreement. "Yeah him and grandpa Waltfeld are the most fun people to mess with on this ship. And if you think about it, then it's only the other mechanics he really gets angry at!" The eleven-year-old girl said.

Before she slowly laid down on the soft bed, resting her small head on Miriallia's lap.

Seeing her do that. Miriallia could not help but smile a bit.

"Yeah I know that Mayu. But perhaps it would be a good idea that you don't annoy them too much, each of them does after all have very important jobs on board this ship. And if you are so anxious for something to do, I have a few minor few presents for you over in my back, which should definitely keep you entertain the next few hours" the oldest of the two brown haired females said.

Hearing her say that.

Mayu immediately sat back up on the bed again. "What is it big sis? What is it!" She asked two times. In a loud excited tone, and with both of her eyes pretty much shining with expectation.

And just sight of the girl looking so happy. The smile on Miriallia's face crew a little bigger, as she slowly moved away from her comfortable location on the bed, and made her way over to the bag pack she had brought with her down there.

"Wait just a second...!" She said, while she rummaged through her small blue bag for the gifts, she knew was there somewhere.

Yet seeing as she hadn't really put all that much effort in to packing the thing properly. It took her about two minutes to find the thing she was looking for.

And with a little difficulty, because of all the other things stuff down there, she pull out a small green and yellow package.

Which she immediately hand over to the highly excited child. "Here you go. I hope it's something you can use" she told her in a kind tone, just as the small girl began tearing the pretty colour gift-wrapping paper away from whatever was hidden inside.

And once all of it was gone. Mayu found two mangas and a anime dvd box contenting an entire series. Which Miriallia and her had discussed more then a few times that they should see, once they had the opportunity.

"Wow! This is great big sis, thank you very much!" Mayu said, as she quickly moved over and gave Miriallia a short hug.

"I'm just happy that you can use it Mayu. I know that it can be kinda boring being stuck on this ship for such a long time, with nothing to do" Miriallia said as she lift her arms and was just about to hug the small brown haired girl back.

When Mayu once more pull away from her, where she looked at her with a truly happy expression on her face.

"Of course I can use it! I'm going to go read these mangas right now!" She said loudly. Before she jumped up from the bed and began making her way over towards the door.

Just as it flew open and the former Buster pilot stepped back in to the room. Yet before he could even get his mouth open and say anything to either of the women in there.

Mayu quickly maneuvered past him and out of the door. "Thank you again for the gifts big sister, I'll see the two of you later!" The youngish crew member of the ship said loudly. Just as the door flew back shut after her.

And once she was out of sight. Dearka turned and looked back at his girlfriend with a slightly childish expression on his face.

"So she gets a gift after you have been gone for such a long time. But what about me don't I deserve to get one too?" He asked. Actually making it sound a bit like he was deeply disappointed that his lovely girlfriend hadn't brought him some kind of present too.

Letting out a small sigh.

Miriallia stood up from the bed and slowly moved over beside him. "Who in the world say I didn't bring you a present too? But as much as I would to give it to you now. We have to wait until tonight" she whispered, with a slight hint of seduction in her voice.

Which the brown haired woman knew, would drive Dearka crazy. And make him even more curious, about seeing what she had brought him.

Hearing her say that. Dearka could not stop himself from blinking a few times in confusion, as his mind began trying to figure out what in the world she was planing to give him and why exactly it had to wait until tonight.

Yet just as he was about to ask her about it. He noticed the slightly wicked yet seductive smile she had on her face. Which made it pretty clear to him that she wasn't going to tell him no matter how many times he asked.

"Ahh man Mir that's not fair! I really want to know!" The blond man said. This time sounding even more like a child then he did before.

Not being effected by his words at all. Miriallia slowly moved in a plant a small kiss on his left cheek.

"You just have to be a good boy and wait. I promise you I'll show it to you tonight. Now lets go down to the mess hall and get some breakfast, I'm hungry" she said still sounding slightly seductive.

Before she turned around and began making her way over to her back pack. Making sure to slowly swing her hips from side to side, in a way she knew would most definitely get her boyfriend's attention.

And she didn't even have to look over her shoulder, to know that Dearka was having quite a tough time. Keeping his gazes away from her cute little behind.

And it was only when she picked up his sweater and throw it in to his face. That he finally snapped out of his somewhat naughty thoughts about his girlfriend.

"Please do hurry Dearka, we don't want to be the last once to get down there. I want a real big position of the chef's food. The last few weeks I haven't gotten much else to eat other then what pizza and Chinese food!" She said. Before she pulled her flimsy purple nightgown over her head.

Which of course served to make a round of new naughty thoughts ran through Dearka's head.

He did however not get long to enjoy the sight of her, dressed in nothing else then her bra and panties. Before she began getting in to her normal day clothes.

And it wasn't long after that. Before the young couple stepped out of their room. And after taking a small look around out there they began heading in the direction of the Archangel's mess hall, where they could both smell a nice aroma of newly cooked food.

To be continued.


	31. Chapter 31

Chapter 31

It was quite early the next morning.

Yet even true most of the Minerva's crew, would most likely have preferred to stay in their beds for an hours or two more. The enormous grey space ship was full of activities as it was being pre too leave.

Which was something two of the younger mechanics down in the hangar was talking loudly about. As they continued with their routine check on the red ZAKU in front of them.

"Where do you think we are heading off to this time Yolant? Wherever it is I really hope we can get there without being attacked. I'm seriously getting tired of putting the mobile suits and the Minerva back together!" Vino said.

Before he took a brief glance over at the three other mobile suits down there, where he could easily tell that the other mechanics was busy working on them.

Which fortunately meant that neither him or Yolant would have to work on them, once they where done checking Lunamaria's machine.

Yet when he again turned his gaze back towards his best friend. He immediately noticed the slightly thoughtful look on his face.

"Yeah well I do agree with you that it can be quite tiresome fixing up the mobile suits again and again. Yet I don't think we should complain too much, we both knew what we got in to when we decided to join Zaft!" Yolant said. Before he hurried forced back a deep yawn that had been just about to leave his mouth.

He might do quite a good job hiding just how tired he really was. But if anybody asked him, and he had to tell them the truth. He wouldn't most definitely have loved to stay in his bed a few hours more this morning.

He did however not get long to think about that. Before Vino decided to interrupt his tired thoughts.

"I already know it's our job Yolant. But it's just getting a bit trivial repairing the same things every time we have been in a battle. I can't even remember how many times we have put either an arm or a leg back on a mobile suit, since this entire mess started" Vino said.

Not doing anything to hid. Just how sleepy and grumpy he was this morning. He truly despised to getting up this early.

Thinking a few seconds about those words. Yolant found himself nodding in agreement.

"Yeah I get what you are saying Vino. But look at the bright side, at least we don't have to fix up the Impulse every time something gets cut or blow off that machine. From time to time it could actually be kinda cool, if we had a few more mobile suits on board, that could be assemble the same way as the Impulse" the black haired teenage said, while he adjust a single thing on the controls in front of them.

After that he once more continued talking in a deep thoughtful tone.

"But if we actually did end up getting a bunch of mobile suits just like the Impulse. There wouldn't really be much point in having all of us mechanics on board. So just be grateful Vino that it's only the machines that takes a little beating, and not the pilots" Yolant said. While thinking briefly about what had happened to Heine. Before he quickly shook those thoughts away again.

Hearing his friend say all of that. Vino slowly turned his attention away from the controls and down at the floor, thinking hard about everything his fellow mechanic had just said.

"It's not like I'm actually wishing for something utterly terrible to happen to the machine, so we will have something interesting to repair. I'm just getting a bit frustrated with whole leg and arm attachment!" He said.

Just as he again reach out and began working on the controls. Now a bit more determined to make sure that everything was just as it should be on Luna's red mobile suit.

Looking a second or two at his friend. Yolant went over his words a few times which made a minor smile appear on his lips. Before he too turned his attention back towards the task the two of them where so busy with.

"I guess you have a point Vino. But with all of this training we and the rest of the mechanics have, with putting body parts back on mobile suit. It doesn't really take that long anymore, which means we have a lot more free time now, then usual!" Yolant said.

Just as he took a few steps backwards, looking directly at the red mobile suit's face.

Seriously wondering if there was anything else they needed to look in to, before the machine was fully combat ready.

Yet while he was doing that Vino turned and took a look back at him. "I don't really think we have gotten a whole lot of free time these last few days, not with all the damage that need to be repaired on the Tannhauser!" Vino said. While thinking about just how difficult it had been, removing the rest of the old cannon and putting in a new one.

And feeling somewhat relieved that task was out of the way. He once more opened his mouth continued talking in the same tone as before.

"But never mind that now Yolant. We still need to run a check up on the Gunner Wizard pack, Lunamaria did use it quite a bit in the last battle. Which means there is a high possibility that it has some internal damage, because of the massive heat!" The teenage said loudly. Then turned around on one foot, and began making his way over to the place where all the Wizard packs was stored on the Minerva.

Seeing him leave in such a hurry. Yolant felt a small smile ran over his lips, as he slowly followed his friend. Determined to assist him in looking the Wizard pack over for any kind of damage.

000000

Meanwhile in the ship's briefing room.

Arthur was talking with the ships pilots about their next mission. Yet as far as he could tell from his location by the blackboard, it was only Athrun and Rey that was actually bothering to listen to him right now.

The others was simply way to tired to pay all that much attention to him.

"Will you all get your act together and sit up straight already this is important!" He yelled out loudly. Just as he saw Shinn, Luna and Nicol fly up from the half asleep state they where in at the moment.

And once he was completely sure that they where all looking right at him. He once more began explaining to them, the Minerva's role in the new mission they had received a little data on just a couple of hours ago.

"I know that you are all tired this early in the morning. Yet seeing as we have next to no idea about what we are heading in to. I will strongly advise that all of you pay attention to this!" He said.

Just as both of his eyes slowly ran over the five teenages, where he could easily tell that none of them where overly excited about being up at this hour of the day.

Yet just as he was about to say something else to them. Shinn made the decision to tell the deputy captain his opinion on this mission.

"This truly does sound like a complete waste of time to me, as far as I understand there is no enemy force there. So why the hell is it necessary for us to travel that far, just to take look around a deserted base!" The Impulse pilot asked loudly. Just as he leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes, truly looking like he did not care one bit about what they where talking about.

Seeing him do that. Arthur slowly roll his eyes at the boy's attitude.

"Shinn we are not completely sure that the base is as empty as seems. The only thing we do know for sure about this Earth Forces base is that there has been a lot of traffic of both mobile suits and military vehicles, which is why high command wants the Minerva to take a look around that base. Just to be sure that the Earth Forces isn't building a new type of mobile suit or weapon there!" Arthur said in a tone, which made it pretty clear to the pilots, that this was serious business.

Looking a second or two at the man. Shinn was just about to open his mouth and say something else to him, when Nicol's voice cut him off.

"That truly does sound important sir! So just how big is this base precisely, and what is our strategy to take control of it?" The green haired man asked. Sounding just serious about this mission, as the deputy captain.

Hearing him ask that.

Arthur slowly turned his gaze away from Shinn and over at the green haired pilot, where he could easily tell by his expression, that the boy was just a bit more awake now then before.

"Well as I was saying before, our first step in this operation, is to determined if the base is really empty and that it's not some kind of trap to lure us in" he said, just as he pressed down on a small button. So now the pilots could see the satellite photos of the base.

Unfortunately they where so blurry that it was kinda hard to see, what was really happening on them.

Yet there was one thing on the photo that did caught all of their attention. "Excuse me sir. But isn't that purple object up in the right corner, that Windam Shinn fought with a few weeks ago?" Lunamaria asked in a loud curious tone. While trying her best to figure out if that thing really was the exact same mobile suit, that had lead an attack on them once before.

Immediately realizing what the girl was referring to. Arthur took a look over at the enlarge photo.

"The captain and I have been discoursing that too. But unfortunately it is kinda hard to tell from the few photos we got" he said, while taking a brief glance over at the purple object on the photos.

It did however not take much time before he again looked back at the pilots. "And that is also one of the main reason why we are actually going there in the first place, we are hoping to find some kind of clue on this base, that will help us track down the location of the Chaos, Gaia and Abyss. That way we might be able to recapture those three machines!" The man explained.

Just hearing that there might be a possibility, for him and the rest of the crew, to finally get even with those bastards that had stolen the three gundams, was more then enough to get Shinn to sit up straight in his chair.

"Do you think they might actually be there sir?" He asked loudly.

Not doing a one thing to hide, that he would just love to show those bastards, inside the three stolen mobile suits. Just how wrong it was taking stuff that did not belong to them in the first place.

Yet before he could really begin planing, what he wanted to do to those damn thefts. Somebody just a few sits away from him decide to ask the second in command the next question.

"Well I do agree that taking a look at this base could be important, but seeing as we have little idea about what awaits us there, would it truly be wise for the Minerva to head there on it's own? If those three machines are waiting for us there, we could be heading in to some serious trouble!" Athrun Zala said.

While quickly going over in his head. Just how much trouble, the three stolen gundams had created for them, up until now. Athrun did however not give the second in command the opportunity to say anything back, about his concern, before he again began talking.

"You did mention sir, that you weren't totally sure if this wasn't some kind of trap" the blue haired man said.

While he through a brief moment or two about how Heine had lost his life.

And that he did not want something like that to happen to one of the other pilots. Because they all so carelessly rushed off in to some kind of trap, which could easily have been prevent by having a little reinforcement along with them.

Smiling slightly at the FAITH member's thoughtfulness. Arthur took a brief look down at the chart he had brought with him in there.

"We are not going there all on our own Athrun, we will be having the two Petrie class Tsuchi and Josefine function as escort. And if that's not enough they are each carrying a full squadron mobile suits, so it wouldn't be just the Minerva out there on this mission!" Arthur explained. As he watched the blue haired young pilot nod a single time in understanding.

Seeing him do that.

Arthur once more continued telling the five pilots, their strategy for taking over the Earth Forces base, the Minerva and the few other Zaft forces would be heading to in just a few hours.

"Once we arrive at the base, Rey and Shinn will launch to scout ahead for the rest of us, and take out whatever resistance they might encounter. Yet if the area really are completely deserted for any hostile forces, you are to land at the base and take a look around at one of the buildings there" he said, while taking a brief look over at the two pilots he was talking to.

And once he saw that both of them understood what he had just told them. He again turned his attention back towards the chart in his hand.

"And while the two of you infiltrate the base, we where hoping that you Athrun will fly patrol over the area? The Saviour is after all quite fast. So it should be able to intercept most unidentified crafts entering the airspace above the base, we surely don't want to be taken by surprise once we get there!" The man said. Now looking directly over at Athrun, waiting to hear what he had to say about their plan.

Seeing as neither him or the captain had the authority to boss the young Zala around. They could only hope he wouldn't have anything against providing backup for Shinn and Rey on this mission.

And if he for some reason decided to say no to this task. It could without a doubt delay their departure a great deal. Seeing as they had to find somebody else that could cover the two other pilots, while they where inside the base.

He did however not get all that much time to worry about that. Before the FAITH member gave him the response, he was truly hoping to hear.

"All right that does sound like a pretty reasonable plan. But what about Lunamaria and Nicol, what exactly are their role in this?" Athrun Zala asked in a thoughtful tone, while taking a small glance over at his green haired friend, and girl sitting beside him.

Hearing him ask that. Arthur also glanced over at the two other pilots. "They will be staying on the Minerva until further notice. As I already told you once before, we have very limited information about what awaits us at this base. But if it turns out there is a whole army of enemy mobile suits there, they will of course be launched to help the rest of you out!" The man explained.

Before he took a look down at the chart.

Just to be extra sure that there wasn't anything he had forgotten to tell the pilots. Yet once he was completely sure that he had told them everything he again looked back at them.

"I really don't have much else to tell you. So until we leave you are all free to do whatever you want. Now then if there is no more questions, then I'll be leaving, there is a few things I need to talk with the captain about!" He said, while giving the pilots a small salute.

Then quickly turned around and began making his way over to the door.

Seeing the door flew shut after the man. The only female present in there right now, turned and looked over at the four male pilots. "So what do you guys think about this mission" she asked. Doing her best to make sure that her eyes didn't linger to long on Athrun.

Even true the captain had thoroughly order her to forget all about her mission yesterday. Luna just couldn't shake away those words about Athrun being engaged to the Orb Chief Representative.

And as much as Lunamaria truly hated to admit it, she was quite jealous. It had been a very long time since she had last met a boy, she thought was boyfriend material. And when she finally found somebody she liked, he had to be hopelessly in-love with somebody else.

But even with that knowledge. She wasn't completely ready to give up yet.

He was after all fighting together with them now, instead of the crew on the Archangel. And meant that there was still a chance that the feelings he supposedly had for Cagalli, wasn't as deep as he and she thought.

And if that was the case. Lunamaria was going to do everything possible, to be there if the relationship suddenly broke apart. That way she could be the one to help him through it.

Yet as she stood there making all of those what-if plans Shinn's voice suddenly interrupted her swirling thoughts.

"Well if you ask me, this whole mission does sound kinda lame Luna! I don't get why it's so important to travel all that way, just to take a look around a deserted base! But if this can somehow lead us to the three stolen gundams, I guess I can live with it!" He said in a slightly unhappy tone.

Just as he slowly stood up from his chair, getting ready to leave the room.

Smiling slightly at that. Nicol said a few wise words they all of them pretty much had to agree on.

"It's not always that soldiers like us, gets those kind of orders we really want. We'll just have to hope that this can somehow help us recover the three stolen mobile suits. And I for one do believe that this is much more interesting then you give it credit for Shinn! You never know what we are going to discover at that base!" The former Blitz pilot said in a serious tone.

Before he slowly moved his hand up, to remove some of the long green hair, that was hang down in front of his eyes.

Hearing him say that Shinn. Just couldn't help but narrow both of his eyes a bit.

"Hm yeah well I still think that somebody else could have taken a look around at this stupid base! And if they actually did find something useful there. They could just send that information to us. So we could use it to track down the Chaos, Gaia and Abyss!" He said loudly. Just before he quickly followed his blond friend out of the room. Who had been kinda quiet since they first got there.

Seeing the two of them disappear out of the room. Nicol slowly turned and looked back at the two other pilots in there.

Athrun was still sitting calmly in his chair with a far away look in both of his eyes, which made it kinda obvious that conversation with their friends from the Archangel was bothering him a bit.

Not that Nicol blame him for that. He too was actually feeling a bit conflicted by some of the things Kira and Dearka had said.

Yet the hold thing had to be even tougher on Athrun. Seeing as he was engaged to Cagalli and clearly loved her with all of his being.

If somebody had asked him two years ago, if he was able to go up against Mayura. He would most definitely say no.

So it had without a doubt been totally heartbreaking for Athrun, to tell Cagalli that he was going to continue being a part of Zaft. Yet just as Nicol got his mouth open and was about to ask his friend if he was feeling all right.

Lunamaria beat him to it.

Just as she slowly moved over and sat down beside the blue haired Saviour pilot. "Are you ok Athrun, you do look a little pale right now?" She asked. While moving her hand up to his forehead to see if he had a fever.

She did however not get long to do that. Before Athrun gently push her hand away.

"I'm all right Luna, I just have a lot on my mind. But it's nothing for you to worry about,.I guess I'm just feeling a bit tired at the moment, perhaps it would be wise for me to go back to my room and take a small nap before we leave this place. I really didn't get much sleep last night" He explained, while using one hand to slowly rub his two tired eyes.

It really had been quite a long night for him, no matter how many times he twisted and turned over, he just couldn't get his fiancée's disappoint look out of his head.

It truly had made his heart ache thinking about how much he wanted to be with her.

So without saying another word to the beautiful redhead girl beside him. Athrun slowly stood up, and began making his way over to the door. With Lunamaria and Nicol looking after him the whole time.

"I'll see you guys later, I really need to be alone right now!" The young Zala said in a slightly loud tone.

Just before the door flew back shut after him.

Not that Athrun actually paid all that much attention to that. His mind was simply way to occupied with the images of Cagalli's sad face, and some of the more crucial things that had been said under the conversation.

"Damn it, this is just so frustrating" he mumbled quietly to himself. As he attempted to shake away the deep feeling of guilt, that was almost hang over him like a small black cloud.

Yet no matter how hard he tried. He just couldn't get rid of his bad consciences right now.

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At the same time back in the briefing room.

Luna just couldn't help but sigh loudly as she stood there looking at the door. A small part of her had actually hoped that he would have told her, what was bothering him.

But he apparently did not want to be as open with her, as he was with the Athha girl.

Which truthfully annoy her quite a bit. She just couldn't understand what she was doing that was so differently from the blond haired woman.

She just wanted to be there for him, and help him out when he truly needed it. Yet no matter how hard she tried, she just couldn't get him to share his troubles with her the same way Cagalli could.

Which seriously made her wonder yet again, what it was he saw in that woman. What the heck was it, that made her so damn special to him.

And could she even compete against it.

"Damn it! Why is it that when I finally meet I nice guy, he can't get his mind away from some other woman?" She loudly asked herself. Somehow forgetting that Nicol was still in there together with her.

And just hearing her say those unhappy words was more then enough to make him turn and looked over at her. With a deep skeptical look in each of his two brown eyes.

"It's properly because he is in-love with Cagalli. And no matter how much you wish for it Luna those kind of feelings isn't just miraculously going to disappear over a night or two. It takes a very, very long time to get over a person, somebody truly loves" Nicol said in quite a far away tone. And with a deeply sadden expression on his face.

Seeing him look so utterly depressed, made Luna blink a few times as she slowly moved over and wrapped her arms around him.

She might be dealing with her own problems right now. Seeing as she was crushing on a guy that was already engaged to somebody else.

And had yet to give her a second look. As painful as it was that Athrun didn't pay any attention to her. Lunamaria was not just going to sit idoally by when one of her friends was in pain.

"I really don't understand what it is that makes you so sad from time to time Nicol. But whatever it is you can always talk with me about it!" She whispered in to his ear, while gently running both of her hands up and down his back. Doing everything she could think of to make him feel at least a little better about whatever it was that made him feel this sad.

Hearing her say that. Nicol snuggled just a bit closer to her, slowly rubbing his head against her left shoulder.

"Thank you very much Luna. You don't know how much I truly appreciate your concern for my wellbeing. But I really don't think I'm ready to talk about it with you or anybody else yet. But perhaps someday in the future that will change!" He told her in a small tone. Just before he carefully brought his hands up and softly hugged her back.

Nodding a few times in understanding to that.

Lunamaria once more began talking softly in to his ear. "You are welcome Nicol, you just say the word and I'll listen to everything you have to tell me" she told him in a caring tone.

Just before she slowly backed away from him and looked directly in to his two brown eyes, where she could easily tell that they each still had a great deal of sadness in them.

And knowing that he didn't not want to talk about it. Luna was having trouble figuring out what to say to him next, she truly did want to help him out.

Yet there wasn't much she could really do at the moment, with him not wanting to tell her what exactly it was that made him feel this depressed. So after just standing there for a few seconds she finally smiled a bit at him.

"Do you want to go down and get a little breakfast. I'm actually a bit hungry right now, and it can be somewhat lonely sitting down there all alone?" She asked. While truly hoping he would say yes.

That way, she would at the very least be able, to get his thoughts away from whatever it was, that was bothering him so much.

And once she saw him nod yes to her question. She moved over and gave him one more small hug. Before the two of them turned around, and began walking slowly together towards the exit of the room. None of them saying all that much to each other right now.

But even true Nicol's face didn't show it all that much right now.

He truly was deeply grateful that Lunamaria wanted to help him out. It really did help on his mood quite a bit, that there was somebody nearby to talk with. Even true it wasn't about the actual problem itself.

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Meanwhile Arthur had finally arrived at the bridge, where he saw that the captain was busy having a very serious conversation with somebody over the phone.

"Ok I see, that really is unfortunate. Do you have any idea about when it's fully repaired?" She asked in a slightly impatient voice, while she took a small look down at her watch, where she could see that it wouldn't be long now, before they where suppose to depart from this place.

Yet as things where right now. She was quite seriously starting to doubt, that was going to happen, they where already immensely short on time as it was. So this type of problem, didn't really help them all that much.

She did however not get the chance to think all that much about it. Before the man at the other end of the line began yelling loudly at her.

Which result in that she hurried pull the phone just a bit away from her ear. So everybody present up on the bridge could hear every single word he was yelling at their captain.

She however didn't really seem to care all that much about, his extremely loud shouting. And just as he stopped for a second to get some much need air back down in to his lungs. She quickly cut the man of before he could get another word in.

"Well please do make sure to tell us when you are ready to leave, we do after all have quite a tight time schedule to uphold. Now if you will excuse me there is a few things I need to take care off" she told the man, while placing the phone back where it belonged.

After that she immediately took a deep breath as she slowly leaned back in the chair and rested her eyes a few seconds.

And even true most of the people up there want to ask her what that was about.

There wasn't a single one of them that want to disturb the captain, while she was so far away in her own thoughts. Yet finally after about five minutes she slowly open her eyes again.

"I seriously do think, I just talked with the most cranky person in the entire world!" She mumbled unhappily, just loud enough for the bridge crew to hear it.

Which result in that the second in command, asked the one question that all of them up there was deeply anxious to get some answers to.

"What in the world was that all about captain? It sounded quite serious" he said, not once taking his two somewhat curious eyes away from the brown haired woman.

Hearing him ask that. Talia slowly turned and looked back at him, where she could easily tell from his expression that he was a bit concerned about what was going on now. So after letting out a small breath, she began explaining to both him and the rest of the staff up there what that conversation was about.

"Well apparently the Tsuchi is having some engine problems, which means that our departure is going to be delayed quite a bit. Seeing as they have no idea about just how much time it will take to get it operational again!" She said, clearly very displeased that something like that was going to happen.

And it quite frankly didn't help that the stubborn command of the Tsuchi, had pretty much been impossible to have a normal down to earth discussion with, about the problem.

He had all but yelled at her, to just mind her own business. While his entire crew was working so freakishly hard on getting the land battleship fix, and ready to move out.

Hearing what exactly the problem was. Arthur immediately let out a somewhat unhappy sound, as he realized that they couldn't leave at their ascribe schedule, which truth be told did annoy him quite a bit. Even more so then it did the captain.

"Did he say anything about when they where done with their repairs? We are after all on a very tight schedule!" Arthur asked. While he too took a small glance down at his watch, that told him that they where actually supposed to leave this place in just a few minutes, which made him narrow his eyes a bit.

And after standing there a few seconds. He once more turned his gaze back at the captain, where he saw her slowly shook her head.

"Unfortunately as I said before he wasn't really the most friendly man. So I didn't get the opportunity to ask him about it. But if I had to guess, I'll say that they will be about ready to leave in about an hour or two!" The woman said. As she slowly reached up and rubbed both of her eyes, a clear sign that she was quite frustrated by this entire situation.

So after a few minutes of tense deep silence it became Bart's turn to ask the captain a question. "So what exactly are we going to do now Ma'am?" He asked, while he slowly reached up to scratch the back of his neck in a somewhat thoughtful way.

Looking over at him a bit Talia used about two minutes to think about the question. Before she let out a deep displeased sigh.

"It really does seem like the only thing we can do right now is wait, but if they haven't fix the engine in an hour, we might seriously have to consider leaving with just the Josefine, at least the command of that ship is a bit more easy communicate with!" The brown haired woman said.

Before she slowly leaned back in her seat, and looked up at the ceiling obviously thinking quite hard about all of this.

She did however not get long to do that before the second in command of the ship had something else to say.

"Well if that's the case, I think I'll head down and get a little breakfast, I haven't really gotten the chance for that today. And I am actually a bit hungry!" The man said. Not doing anything to hide, that he was still a bit displeased, with all the troubles over on the Tsuchi.

Hearing those words leave the man's mouth. Talia once more turned her attention over at the grey haired man, where she smiled slightly at him. "All right please enjoy yourself Arthur, we will make sure to contact you, once this mess have been straightened out" she kindly told him.

"Thank you captain, I'll see all of you later then!" He said, just before he turned around and left the bridge again.

Which made a deep silence fell over everybody else up there, most of them taking this opportunity to rest their eyes for a few minutes, or get in some of the least important work that truthfully didn't have to be done at this very moment in time.

But with nothing else to do the next hour it was an ok way to keep oneself occupied, while they wait for some good news over from the Tsuchi.

So the only thing that could be heard up there right now was the crews somewhat heavy breathing. And Meyrin that was typing hastily away on the controls in front of her.

Which actually did annoy the few people up there, that was trying to relax a bit. Unfortunately they couldn't really say anything to her about it.

Seeing as the young red haired woman was working so hard, and they where just being lazy. They just had to live with the somewhat irritating sound, of her fingers hitting the buttons on the keyboard.

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So while most of the crew on the Minerva was somewhat frustrated that they weren't able to leave when they should.

A few crew members on another space ship was enjoying a nice calm breakfast together, all of them where in a good mood. Especially since Miriallia was back with them.

Which was something her two best friends was truly delighted about. As they continued chatting loudly with each other, about what she had been doing the last four weeks, she had been away.

Yet as the three girls was talking like that. Kira and Dearka where both wondering just how the heck they where able to breath when they kept on where talking so damn fast.

But apparently it wasn't really much of a problem for any of them. As they didn't really take all that many breaks, in their discussion about if Miriallia had gotten any new clothes, while she had been gone.

Yet once she told them, that she hadn't been having a whole lot of time for that. The two other girls each got a slightly disappointed look in their eyes.

It was pretty clear from the conversation. That both Lacus and Cagalli missed being out shopping. Something neither of them had been able to do, since long before the Archangel had left Orb.

"They really do have a lot to talk about, don't they?" Dearka whispered over to his friend next to him. As he sat there watching the three women talk with each other like it was they very first time they had meet.

There hadn't really been that many opportunists for either of the males to say all that much, since the three girls was so busy making up for the time they had been apart.

Hearing him asked that. Kira slowly turned his gaze away from the chatting women and over at his friend, where he could easily tell by Dearka's expression, that he did find listening to them quite boring.

Not that Kira could really blame him for that. They had after all been at it for quite a while now.

And it wasn't like he and Dearka had much to do with this discussion. They where pretty much just forced to stay there and wait until the girls where done catching up, which apparently could still take quite a while.

"Just don't say anything that will get us in trouble Dearka. I seriously don't feel like getting a new bump on the head from Cagalli!" Kira whispered back. While taking a brief glance over at his sister.

Who fortunately wasn't really paying all that much attention to Dearka and him. She was simply way to occupied talking with her two friends to notice how much this was annoying the males at the table.

Yet just as Kira once more turned his gaze away from her and back at at his friend. Cagalli suddenly jumped hastily up from the table and raced full speed out in to the halls, with everybody else looking after her.

"What in the world was that about? I only thought a woman could move that fast, if there was a sale somewhere" Dearka joked, while looking in the direction Cagalli had ran off in.

But even true the three other people where also wondering what was going on, none of them said anything about the sale comment. And it was only when Kira stood up from his seat and quickly took off after his sister.

That the others finally snapped out of their confused thoughts and hurried follow him out in to the halls, before he could get to far away from them.

And even true they where all deeply concerned about Cagalli it did not take them long to find her at a open bathroom, where she was busy throwing up just about all of the food she had eaten not that long ago.

So after watching her for a small second or two. Kira slowly stepped in to the bathroom and began softly rubbing her back, in an attempt to help her through this.

Yet it quickly became obvious to all of them, that no matter what he did. Cagalli just kept on delivering her once nice breakfast to toilet.

It took just about five whole minutes. Before she slowly straighten back up and looked over at the people behind her, where she could easily tell that they where all pretty worried about her.

"That was just disgusting. It really did tasted much better going down then out!" She woozily complained. As she moved over to the small sink in there, and turned on the water, which she immediately took a big mouthful of and spit it back out again. Trying hard to get rid of the bad gross taste in her mouth.

Yet while she continued doing that. Lacus slowly stepped in to the room, and placed her right hand on her friend's shoulder, making her turn around and glance back at her.

"Are you all right Cagalli? Maybe you should consider laying down a bit" the pink haired woman suggest, with a concerned expression all over her face. As she kept on rubbing her sister-in-law's shoulder.

Smiling slightly at the other girl's concerned for her. Cagalli once more moved in a fill her mouth with water, and after getting rid of that. She again looked back at the people behind her.

"You...you guys don't have to worry, I'm...I'm...just getting a small cold that's all!" She said to them. Before she reached down and throw some of the nice cold water in to her face.

Which she continued doing for a few minutes, with everybody else just watching her quietly. And it was only when she reach over and took a hold on the small green towel that was located just beside the sink, that Kira opened his mouth again.

"Maybe you should consider going down and see the doctor sis. It really looks like you could use it!" He said with a worried look in both of his eyes, while he slowly moved his hand over, and was just about to place it on her forehead.

Yet before he could try and figure out if she was having a fever. She hurried push his hand away and stepped back out of the bathroom.

"I just told you I'm getting a cold, so I don't need any medical attention. Now then if there is nothing else you guys want. I think I'll go back to my room and get a little rest!" She said loudly.

Just before she walked off with extremely loud steps, that could be heard far and wide. And still with everybody else looking after her.

"I can honestly say, that I'm not the smarts person on this ship. But I kinda think it was pretty obvious that she was lying" Dearka said. As he turned and looked back at his girlfriend and the pink princess, that was obviously thinking the same thing as himself.

Yet it was only when Kira muttered something that sound very much like. I'm going to kill Athrun, that the two girls finally turned their gaze away from the direction Cagalli had disappeared in and back at each other.

"Do you really think she's...?" Miriallia asked with big eyes. As she saw Lacus nodded yes a single time to the question she had just asked.

It did however take a few seconds before she got her mouth to work.

"Well it was a clear sign. But if she doesn't want the doctor to look at her, it's kinda hard to tell. So it would properly be best that we keep an eye on her the next few days. Incase something else like that is going to happen again!" Lacus said, in a very serious tone.

Just as her husband again muttered something about murdering Athrun. And once those words had left his mouth, he turned around and walked off, with his wife and two friends looking after him.

"Damn I'm seriously happy, that I'm not in Athrun's shoes right now" Dearka said.

Just as he slowly rubbed away the few drops of sweat that was slowly gathering on his forehead. While the two women nodded slowly in agreement, each of them feeling a tiny bit sorry for Athrun right now.

But once Kira was completely out of sight. Lacus turned and looked back at the only other couple on the Archangel, other then Kira and herself.

"I do believe that he was exaggerating a bit. I think he was just slightly shocked about the entire event. It's not everyday that once sister runs off and start throwing up like that" Lacus said, while taking a brief glance in to the open bathroom.

Which really did look quite messy right now. Some of the vomit did lay beside the toilet, seeing as Cagalli apparently hadn't been able to aim properly when she had first gotten there.

Yet as Lacus was taking in the somewhat mess up view of the room, and thinking about what had just happened. Miriallia said one single thing that both Dearka and her had to agree.

"I most confess, I'm quite relieved that none of us has to clean up in there" the brown haired woman mumbled softly. Before she hurried reach over and press down on the small button that made the door fly back shut again.

Which was enough to get both her boyfriend's and Lacus' attention over on her, where she gave each of them a small smile.

"So what exactly do you guys want to do now? I know that I for one kinda lost my appetite, so I think I'll go down to the hot spring and just relax a bit" she said.

Just as Dearka told her that he was going down to the hangar to play cards with the other mechanics.

Which meant that Lacus was now, the only one who hadn't said anything about, what she was going to do. Yet after a few short seconds, the pink haired girl slowly opened her mouth.

"I better go find Kira, he did seem just a bit upset. So maybe he needs somebody to talk with about it all. I'll see the two of you later" Lacus said. Before she slowly turned away. And began walking with light steps, down the Archangel's halls, with Dearka and Miriallia looking after her.

So even true Lacus did spend a few minutes, searching for her husband.

It didn't really take her long to find him by the very same window, that two of them had been looking out of two years ago. Just after the last war had ended.

"Are you ok Kira? You did seem somewhat upset when you left!" Lacus said. With a slightly worried look in each her two blue eyes, and with her head tilted a bit to the side, while she tried hard to figure out what kind of mood he was in right now.

And once she got a clear look at his face, she could immediately tell that he wasn't nearly as cranky as before.

So after a few long seconds of complete silence. Kira let out a small breath as he looked over at his wife.

"It's not that I'm all that upset Lacus. I just feel like Athrun should have been the first one to know about this, and not the rest of us!" He said. Just as his best friend's happy grin made it's way through his head. And he seriously wonder what kind of reaction Athrun would have to this. If this whole thing with Cagalli really was what they all thought it was.

Thinking slightly about everything Kira had just said to her. Lacus nodded slowly in understanding.

"I see what you mean Kira. Maybe the next time you run in to him, you should tell him about it. You never know, but it might just be what we need to get him to return to his sense" she said, while she too was wondering what Athrun would do, once he heard about this.

Not really needing a lot of time to think about his wife's words. Kira slowly turned away from the beautiful view outside and looked over at his lovely wife.

"I guess you are right Lacus. But I'm still going to beat the crap out of him the next time I see him!" Kira said in a tone, that made it kinda hard for Lacus to figure out if he was actually serious about this.

So after studying his face a bit longer. She stepped over next to him, and took a hold on his right arm and leaned slowly in towards him, resting her tired head against his shoulder.

"Of course you are going to beat him up a bit. It is after all a brother's job to look after his sister!" Lacus said. Before she tried to get at least a bit more comfortable against him.

Hearing her say that.

Kira could not help but let out a small chuckle. As he pull his arm away from her grasp, and gently wrapped it around her waist. Holding her tightly. While they stood there looking out at the many fish swimming around outside.

"It's also his job, to protect and look after his gorgeous wife!" Kira whispered softly to her. Before he leaned over and gave her cheek a light kiss.

And pretty much immediately after that sweet gesture, Lacus' heart began beating even faster down in her chest. As a deep red glow slowly appeared on each of her cheeks, which made her snuggle a bit close to her husband, truly enjoy the peaceful moment the two of them where sharing together.

Yet even true both of them where having a good time. They just couldn't help but think about what had happened with Cagalli not long ago.

And they each truly wondered if they where right about their assumption. But seeing as the blond haired woman did not want to confirm their suspicion, they just had to wait until later, to figure it out.

They did however not get much time to spend together like that. Before they each heard the familiar voice of a certain round little robot, which kept on getting louder and louder the more seconds that went by.

And it didn't take long before Haro came around the corner with Birdy following closely behind him.

"Lacus Hello Lacus!" The small robot yelled, while he jumped hastily up and down directly behind them.

Just as Birdy flew over and land on Kira's shoulder. Where he immediately call out his own name in a happy manner, while he quickly jumped away from his own's shoulder and land on top of his head instead, where he once more call out his name.

Looking a few times between their two little friends. Lacus let out a soft giggle as she kneel down and pink up the noisy cheerful robot behind them.

"Hello there Mr Pink, so what kind of trouble have the two of you gotten in to today?" She asked in her usual kind tone. Yet the only kind of responded she got from the two small robots, was a few more cheerful sounds.

Just as Birdy quickly moved away from his comfortable location on top of Kira's head. Which meant that he end up sitting just next to the hairpin Lacus usually wore in her long soft hair, at the same time Haro shouted out her name as loudly as possible.

Just before he jumped out of her hands and land on the floor where he once more started bouncing up and down. Still yelling just about everything he could think off.

Seeing just how happy the two small robots was right now. Kira softly tighten his grip his wife, as he once more looked back out of the window.

"They both seem to be in a good mood. I wonder what they where doing before they got here. I really hope that they haven't made some kind of trouble around the ship, we got Mayu to do stuff like that" the brown haired man said, with a tiny grin on his face. As he thought a few seconds about, how many pranks the girl had pull around the ship, since they left Orb.

Hearing that. Lacus once more let out a soft giggle, as she too thought about some of the more bizarre things the girl had done.

"At the very least, the two of them, isn't as good as coming up with ideas to make trouble as Mayu is. And you have to admit that she does liven things up a bit down here. Which is something I do believe that's we all can use from time to time" she said in a kind tone.

Thinking about that for a second or two. Kira found himself nodding slowly in agreement.

"I guess you are right Lacus, it would be kinda boring down here without a little entertainment. And that's certain something Mayu is very good at providing" the young man said, as he reach up after Birdy that seemed like he was about to get entangled in Lacus' long pink hair.

Which he knew quite well, that neither of them liked very much. The last time that had happened, they had actually end up being forced to use a pair of scissors to get the small panicky robot lost.

Something which truly had sadden Lacus. Seeing as it didn't look all that pretty with that small chunk of hair gone. Yet fortunately it hadn't taken that many weeks for it to grow back to it's normal length.

So after putting his small pal down on the floor beside Haro. He once more reached over and wrapped his arm around his wife's waist, pulling her back in close.

Feeling him do that. Lacus sigh contently, as she rest her head on his shoulder. And looked out after a stream of the more colourful fish, that was slowly making their way past the window.

But even while she was doing that. She couldn't help but think about if she should tell her husband, what she had thought about doing these last few days.

Yet once the many fish was out of sight, she lift her head and took a small glance up at his face.

Where she immediately noticed the happy smile that was there. Which made it clear to her that he was truly enjoying spending time with her right now, and that made her decide to wait until another time to tell him about her plans.

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Meanwhile somewhere else on the Archangel.

Cagalli was laying on her bed looking up at the ceiling.

She too was somewhat suspicion about what had happened not that long ago. Especially because it wasn't the first time she had found herself throwing up these last few days.

And even true a part of her realized that it would properly be a good idea to talk with the ship's doctor about it. She just could bring herself to do it, she simply didn't want to be alone at a time like this.

She truly wished with all of her heart, that the man she loved was there to support her. If this turned out to be more then a cold, as she had originally thought, yet with him so far away on the Minerva.

Cagalli knew that it was pretty much impossible for her small wish to come through.

And with that in mind she slowly turned over and looked in to the white blank wall beside her bed.

"Athrun don't you realize how much I need you right now? I just miss you so much!" She whispered sadly.

Just before a light sob shook her entire body.

Which made her reach over and tightly hug her pillow, slowly rubbing her deeply sad face up against the feather object. Taking what little comfort she could get from the soft feeling against her face.

Yet even while doing that a single tear left her eye and made it's way down her left cheek.

"Athrun...I love you..." she mumbled softly. Just as each of her eyes fell shut. And the very last thing she saw before she slowly drifted off to sleep, was Athrun's truly handsome smile, while he reach out after her hand.

And just seeing that. Even in her sleep, was more in enough to make another tear leave her eye, and ran down her face.

To be continued.

Hey guys I want to thank you for all of the reviews.

And please do leave a few comments about this chapter. I'm really looking forward to hear what you guys think about, what's going on this chapter.


	32. Chapter 32

I'm sorry that this chapter took so long. I have been kinda busy these last couple of weeks.

Chapter 32

It hadn't been many hours since the Tsuchi had been repaired.

And at this very moment the three Zaft ships was slowly approaching their destination.

But even true they had yet to see any signs of hostile mobile suits, or anything else that could be consider a threat.

The Zaft forces was still very cautious about rushing in to the area. Seeing as there was still a very high possibility that this was some kind of trap. So while the Tsuchi and Josefine stayed behind.

The Minerva slowly continued onward towards the base. The grey Zaft ship did however not move that far away from it's two escorts, before Talia began talking to her crew in a serious tone.

"Ok Malik hold here, we don't want to get to close incase there is something dangerous in there, we all know just how much those guys who ran off with the Chaos, Gaia and Abyss enjoys making traps. And we certainly don't want a repeat of our second battle with them. So lets get Shinn and Rey to take a look around in there first, before we bring the Minerva any closer to the base!" The brown haired woman said, as she looked out at the somewhat quiet area just ahead of them.

It truly was strange that the Earth Forces would just pack up their things and leave this place. It wasn't really like them to give up their territory without some kind of fight.

Which in Talia's eyes seriously made this whole thing even more suspicious.

And she quite frankly didn't like being here, especially because she felt like she was putting her crew in unnecessary danger. So she was really looking forward to get this whole mission over and done with.

"Ok get ready to send out the Impulse and the Phantom, and please have Athrun standby to launch in the Saviour, so he can cover those two while they infiltrate the base. And do make sure to keep an eye out for anything suspicious!" The captain order loudly. Still not moving her eyes away from the enemy stronghold in front of the ship.

She did however not get long to take in the view. Before she heard Meyrin began talking loudly out over the speakers, where she told Rey and Shinn, that they could leave whenever they where ready.

And it was only shortly after that before they all saw the Core Splendor leave the ship, which meant that it didn't take many seconds before the powerful mobile suit was assembled and equipped with the Force Silhouette.

But even true the Impulse could fly with this equipment on, Shinn brought the gundam down just ahead of the ship where he waited a short moment or two until Rey join him down there.

And together the two comrades began heading slowly towards the base, each of them with their beam rifles up and ready to fire.

"They each seemed to be ready for anything, but I guess that's understandable considering how little we know about this place!" Arthur said, while he and everybody else up there, continued watching the somewhat slow way the two pilots was approaching the still quiet Earth Forces base. Which for the time being had yet to show any sign of movement.

And while everybody up there heard what he said.

None of them really bother giving him a reply. Seeing as they where all pretty much on the edges of their seats, about what was going on just outside of the ship.

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At the same time outside.

Shinn was thoroughly looking around the place. Yet there was only one small sign of life nearby, and that was a couple of birds that was sitting on the fence that was surrounding the entire base.

"I knew coming here was a complete waste of time. There is nothing here!" He complained loudly, while he again took a quick glance around the area.

He did however not having any more luck this time finding anything hostile. The base truly did look completely abandoned there was not a single thing here that could even be consider a threat.

"It's not like we are already done checking the place out, so don't let you guard down Shinn. You never knows when an enemy will suddenly try and strike you down from behind!" Rey said. Just as he carefully stepped over the tall fence.

Yet even as he was taking a look around in there, he realized that Shinn might just be right about this being a waste of time.

The whole place was just so rundown, that it would seriously surprise him. If they where actually able to find anything here, which could someway be used against the Earth Forces.

But maybe while they where leaving this place, they had left something important behind. It certainly wouldn't hurt to take a more thorough look around.

And with that in mind he began making his way towards the larges of the buildings.

With Shinn following not that far behind him. Who where still busy muttering about how boring this whole mission was.

Not that Rey was really listening to him right now, he was much more interested in the building, the two of them where slowly approaching.

"Man! I don't get how they could have used this place as a base, it's doesn't look like there have been done any maintains around here for a very long time, it actually look more like a total dump, then anything else!" Shinn said loudly.

Just before he used the Impulse's foot to tip over a rusty old trailer that had been left behind.

Yet the only thing he got out of that, was scaring away a small frightened grey and white cat, that had apparently been living under that very object, until he came and ruined the whole thing.

And once the now homeless animal was completely out so sight.

He hurried turned and walked the rest of the way over to Rey's ZAKU, that by now was standing as close to the entrances of the building as possible.

"Well no matter what it looks like Shinn. It can not be denied that we where order to check both the outside area of the base. And if there wasn't any sign of hostile forces, then we where suppose to take a look around inside one of the buildings. And I do believe that this is the most important one here!" The blond teen said. Just as he opened the cockpit, and began lowing himself to the ground.

Seeing him do that. Shinn let out a deep breath, as he hurried got the cockpit open too, and began slowly descending downwards towards the solid ground beneath his mobile suit.

And once both of his feet hit the ground. He immediately pull out his gun and made his way over beside Rey.

Who apparently was just waiting for him. So after taking a brief glance over at each other, they both nodded just before they enter the enormous building the Earth Forces had abandoned not that long ago.

"Damn. It's even more of a dump in here!" The dark haired teenage said loudly. While slowly moving his flashlight over all the things. Which was spread out through the somewhat narrow halls.

It was becoming more and more obvious for both of the Zaft pilots.

That the Earth Forces soldiers who had been here in the past, had left this place in somewhat of a rush. Seeing as more then a few of the objects laying on the messy floor, that could most likely still be used.

"I seriously wonder what the heck draw them away from this place, it might not look all that impressive outside. But in here it's a totally different story" Shinn said. As he kneel down and picked up a cap that had no doubt belonged to one of the Earth Forces soldiers station there.

Yet after looking it over for a few seconds, he throw it away, so it landed over beside a few office supplies that had also been left behind.

After that he again turned his attention over towards Rey. And once more began talking to him.

"I mean just try and take a look around at the walls in here, they do seem pretty thick and solid. So they would most likely be able to withstand quite the attack from the outside!" The boy said. While thinking briefly about how different this mission would have been, had there actually been somebody here ready to fight and defend this place, when they had first arrived there.

Thinking slightly about what Shinn had just said.

Rey took a small look around, where he immediately noticed, that the Impulse pilot was right about the walls looking like they could withstand quite the beating.

Which actually made the entire matter about the Earth Forces, abandoning this base, even more peculiar.

It seriously did seem like a few mobile suits, would have been more then enough to defend this somewhat strange place, so why exactly had they left it.

Yet before he could give it all that much thought. The two friends turned around a corner and enter a huge room. Where the very first thing their eyes land on, was a long row of extremely old looking glass cylinders. Which was just big enough to content a single human being.

"What the hell did they use those things for?" Shinn asked in a confused tone. While he continued looking around the room, trying to figure out the meaning with all of these weird cylinders.

But just as he was about to repeat his question. Rey collapsed down on to his knees where he immediately let out an enormous scream that could without a doubt be heard through the entire base.

"Rey! What's wrong!" He asked concerned, while he hurried rushed over to his friend, where he reach out and put his hand on his shoulder, in an minor attempt to calm him down.

Yet it didn't really help all that much, seeing as Rey was now holding on to his head like he actually thought it was going to exploded or something like that.

And it was only by a share luck, that Shinn manage to hear the next few words Rey said to him.

"Shinn...get me out of this damn place. I don't want to be in here a second longer!" He hissed loudly.

While he continued holding and shaking his head, like he was trying everything to get rid of all those bad memories that was hastily flashing through his mind. Like some kind of deeply destructive light show, that was torturing him from the past.

And no matter what he did and how hard he tried he just couldn't get rid of the many images.

Still not entirely sure what the heck was going on right now. Shinn put away his gun, then reached down and took Rey's arm and put it over his shoulder. After that he hurried stood back up again, supporting his friend so he wouldn't fall over.

And once he was completely certain that Rey was somewhat steady on his feet. He slowly turned around, and began making his way back in the same direction they had came from.

Utterly determined to get his fellow pilot out of there as quickly as possible. Even true he still didn't understand why, those bizarre cylinders, had made Rey freak out like this.

"Just try and relax Rey, we are almost at the exit!" He said, while he continued dragging the other teen towards the very place, where he could feel a nice cold breeze coming in, which he seriously hoped would help Rey get over his panic attack.

Yet one glance over at his face, was more then enough to tell him. That Rey was still ready to fall to his knees, and start screaming like this was the end of the world.

And just seeing him look like that.

Made Shinn tighten his grip on him. As he tried to walk just a tiny bit faster, without dropping the still shivering and pale friend. That by now was looking down at the floor like it was the most interesting thing ever.

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Meanwhile far above where Shinn and Rey was.

Athrun was in the Saviour making another flyby over the base. Not that there was anything remotely treating down there.

The only somewhat interesting thing he had found yet, was two completely messed up old Strike Daggers. That actually looked a bit like, they had been fighting with each other, before they had been destroyed by an even more powerful mobile suit.

It truthfully had been a bit hard for him to tell, what exactly those mobile suits had been, when he had first spotted them. And it had only been thanks to their shields that he had been able to figure it out.

Yet now that he was taking a more thorough look at the surroundings. He noticed that it wasn't just those two Daggers that had been destroyed here at some point in time. There was mobile suits parts pretty much all over the place.

And pretty much each and every one of them seemed like they had been fighting among themselves.

Before they had been completely wiped out by something else, that had very little trouble destroying them all.

Yet just as he was about to turn around and take of in another direction. He recognized a certain weapon laying on the ground just beneath him.

And without giving it a second thought he got the Saviour over in to it's mobile suit mode. And got the red gundam down on the ground just beside the very thing, he had seen more then a few times, in the last war.

"But this is...! Could those three really have been here at some point in time?" He quietly asked himself.

As he slowly kneel down and picked up what could only be the Forbidden gundam's scythe. It was somewhat more rusty and crack up, then the one it had always been carrying around.

But there was next to no doubt, in Athrun's mind.

That the deadly green gundam, that Kira and him had been facing of against so many times in the past, had at some point in time been here in the area. And that it had been using it's favorite weapon against something here.

Which seriously made Athrun wonder if it had been the Forbidden, that had taken out all of these Daggers. Or had it actually been something much more dangerous then that mobile suit.

"What the heck have they been doing here? Was this some kind of testing facility for prototype mobile suits?" He asked out loud.

Just before he throw, the scythe back to where he had first found it. He seriously didn't want to carry that damn thing around. He had already seen more then enough of that weapon in the last war.

So after taking one more brief glance around down there.

He hurried took off yet again, and transformed the Saviour back over in to it's mobile armor mode.

Which meant that it only took a few minutes before he was once more making his way over the completely deserted base. Still keeping a close eye out for anything suspicious.

Not that there was all that much to worry about out there. Everything truly did seem pretty calm at the moment.

Yet he knew better then most people, that such a thing could easily change in the matter of a few minor seconds.

Which was why it was properly wise for him not to let his guard down, as long as they where there.

It was just so hard to tell, if something would suddenly show up and start attacking them, and if some kind of threat actually did show up. He wanted to be absolutely sure that he was ready to strike, and beat up anything unidentified that enter the area and started attacking them.

But as things looked now. He was begin to seriously doubt, that there was actually anybody in the Earth Forces, who cared very much about this place. It truly didn't seem all that important to them.

Which was properly the reason why they had decided to leave it in the first place. And if some of them actually wanted to fight for this place now.

It was a completely unrealistic not to mention totally foolish move on their part. Which was why Athrun was somewhat sure now that there was no way they wouldn't come under attack, while they where there.

Yet it certainly didn't hurt to be careful.

And with that in mind, he once more turned the transformed mobile suit around, to do yet another flyby over the area. Just to make extra sure, that there was nothing dangerous nearby.

He did however not get long to fly around like that. Before he suddenly noticed his two comrades down by the entrance of the main building.

And from what he could tell from up there, Shinn was for some reason supporting Rey.

Which could only mean that there was something wrong, and without one bit of hesitation. He got the red machine over in to it's mobile suit mode, and land directly in front of the two other pilots, just incase somebody was actually chasing them.

Yet once he saw Shinn, slowly place the blond teen down on the ground so he was leaning up against the wall. He immediately realized that there was nothing inside the old building, that could threaten his two team mates.

So while still wondering what in the world was going on. He hurried got in contact with the Minerva.

"Captain Gladys! Both Rey and Shinn, have just gotten back out of the building. Nut something seems to be wrong so you better hurry and send a medical team over here as quickly as possible!" Athrun said loudly.

Hearing him say that, It didn't even take a second, before Talia got a very serious look, in both of her eyes.

"All right Athrun, I'll tell them to leave immediately. By the way do you think it's safe to move the Minerva closer to the base? That would definitely make it easier for the medical team to get them back on board!" The brown haired woman said hastily. Not once moving her earnest gaze away from the blue haired young pilot, up on the main monitor.

Knowing that this was quite important. Athrun took one more thorough look around the place, just to be absolutely certain that there was nobody else around, other then himself, and the two pilots down on the ground.

"Everything seems to be in order captain, just go ahead and move the ship closer!" The pilot of the Saviour said. Before he slowly turned around, and looked directly over at the grey space ship, not that far away from them.

And even as he was standing there watching the Minerva, he saw the enormous warship begin slowly making it's way over to their location. Which fortunately meant that it would not be long now, before Rey could get the help, he required so badly.

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It was about a half hour after Rey's somewhat traumatic experience inside the base.

Right now he was fast asleep while the Minerva's doctor was busy checking him for any signs of injuries.

Yet after five long minutes of tense deep silence. The man finally turned away and looked over at Shinn who had been standing over by the door, ever since Rey was first brought in here.

"There isn't really anything physical wrong with him. So he should be ok after getting some rest. But it's properly best he stays here for now, you never know just how he is going to react, once he wakes up and I would very much like to keep an eye on him, until that happens" the man explained. As he watched his assistant wash away the few drops of sweat, on the blond teen's forehead.

Also watching the woman do that. Shinn was glad to know that his friend was in good hands. And with that in mind he once again turned his attention back towards the doctor.

"I'm really glad he is all right. I was kinda worried about him in there!" Shinn said in a small tone. While he thought back to how Rey had acted inside the weird Earth Forces base, the two of them had been checking out when he had flipped out.

It truly didn't make any sense to him, what it was about those damn cylinders that had made him react in such a panicking manner.

So while still thinking about that. He took one more glance over at his friend.

"I think I'll be going now doc, there is something I need to look in to, and it just can't wait until later!" He said loudly, as he quickly turned around on one foot and ran full speed out of the room.

Completely and utterly determined to go along with whoever was going to enter the base next.

He seriously needed to figure out some answers to all of this. The dark haired teenage quite frankly hadn't like seeing, his normal calm and intelligent comrade behave in such a manner.

So if there was someway he could find some clues about what happened to Rey inside that damn base. He was certainly going to go back in there even if the captain told him to stay out here.

"Damn it! This whole thing, it's just so freakishly weird!" He angrily muttered, while running even fast down the Minerva's halls.

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So while Shinn was making his way towards the exit of the Minerva.

Nicol and Athrun was busy discoursing with the captain, what they where going to do now.

"I know Shinn said that there was nobody in there. But that certainly doesn't mean that it can't still be dangerous in there. Yet I most admit I'm quite curious about what Shinn and Rey found in there. So I would very much like, to take a small look around the place!" Talia said in a serious tone. While looking over at the entrance of the base, truly wondering what the two pilots had discovered in there.

Hearing those words leave the brown haired woman's mouth. Athrun immediately snapped back out of his thoughts about the crappy old weapon, he had found out there not that long ago.

He might not be showing it all that much. But he too was kinda curious about this base.

For some strange reason, he just couldn't help but wanting to know, if this had been the location where the Forbidden, Calamity and Raider had been assembled. He had after all been facing of against all three of those machines more then once in the last war.

Yet now that he was giving it some serious thought. He realized that he actually didn't know all that much about the three old Earth Forces gundams, and if there was a opportunity to dig up at least a little information about them. He would most definitely do it.

So with that in mind. He began speaking to the captain, in the same serious tone of voice, she had just been using.

"I too would actually like to take a small look around in there. I found something not long ago, that really made me quite suspicious about his place!" The blue haired young man said. Just as he saw a few images of the Forbidden coming straight towards him with it's scythe up, and ready to strike.

Yet before he could seriously start thinking about all of his battles, with the green gundam.

Nicol decided to ask him, what it was that made him so curious about this place.

And just hearing his friend ask him that, was more then enough to make Athrun turn and look over at Nicol. Where he could easily tell from his expression, that he really wanted to know just what exactly he was thinking so hard about.

And one small glance over at the captain, did make it kinda obvious to him, that she was feeling pretty much the same way.

So realizing, that he had no really reason to keep it a secret. He let out a small breath as he once more began talking to them.

"While I was doing my patrols over the base, I found the Forbidden gundam's scythe. Which kinda made me wonder if that mobile suit have been here at some point in time. I know that it's not really that important now. It's just that I face that machine so many times in the last war. That a small part of me kinda want to know some more about it!" He explained, while thinking briefly about just how close that gundam, had came to killing the woman he loved.

Satisfied with the reply. Talia nodded a few times in understanding, as she turned and once more looked back at the enormous building.

"Hm I understand what you are saying Athrun. So instead of wasting our time standing out here talking, we should hurry up and get going!" The brown haired woman said loudly.

And before any of the pilots had time to come up with some kind of response. Talia began making her way over to the entrance.

So after sharing a brief look. The two former members of the Le Creuset team hurried took off after her, before she could get to far away.

They did however, not have to worry much about being left behind.

Seeing as the captain was now in a small discussion with the deputy captain about something. He apparently thought it was a very bad idea for them, to run around to much inside this creepy old building.

"Captain! I truly do think it would be wise, that we just forget about all of this! You saw the terrible condition Rey was in, when he and Shinn came back out from in there!" The grey haired man said, with a deeply serious look in both of his eyes.

Not once taking her gaze away from him. Talia used a few seconds to think about his concern.

She had no trouble at all, understanding why Arthur was so concerned about their safety inside this enemy base.

But after using so much time to travel all the way here. And going through all the trouble of making sure that the base was completely deserted, there was just no way they where going to just turn around and leave the area now.

Not before they had gather at least a little information about what the Earth Forces had been doing here.

And with that in mind. She got a very serious expression on her face, as she began talking somewhat calmly to the grey haired man.

"Arthur, I seriously doubt that there is anybody here. That's isn't slightly freaked out about this place, but we where order to check out what was going on here. And that is what we are going to do. But if you want to you can stay out here, none of us is forcing you to go with us in there!" The captain said.

Just as she and the two pilots continued in the direction of the entrance.

Looking after the three of them. Arthur was having a bit of a tough time, deciding just what in the world he should do now. Yet before he could really start thinking it over, an extremely loud voice could be heard pretty much all over the entire area.

"HEY GUYS! WAIT FOR ME, I'M COMING TOO!" Shinn yell loudly. Just before he came rushing full speed out of the Minerva, and began making his way over to the three people by the entrance of the base.

Who by now, was all just standing there, quietly waiting for him to catch up to them. Which truly didn't take him all that long, seeing as he was pretty much running as fast as his legs could carry him.

"Damn that was close! I was sure you guys, was going to leave me behind out here!" He breath out. As he stood there with his hands on his knees, trying hard to get some much need air, back down in to his lungs.

Fortunately for him it was quite chilly out there right now. So it only took him a couple of short minutes for him regain his breath.

After that he stood back up straight, and looked over at the captain and his two fellow pilots. "I'm ready to head back in there now" he said determined, as he slowly moved his hand up and rubbed away some of his hair that was hang down in front of his eyes.

Smiling a bit at him. Talia turned and walked slowly in to the building, with the three pilots following closely behind her. They did however not get that far before they heard a couple of loud steps coming from behind them.

Which immediately made them all turn around to see who it was. And much to their minor surprise they saw the Minerva's second in command.

"I'll...I'll be coming too. As nervous as this place makes me...I really want to know what's in here!" The man said, in a slightly shake up tone, which made it pretty clear that he was more then just a bit nervous about being in there.

But even so none of them said anything to him about it. They just turned around and continued walking down the hall, all of them making sure to keep their guard up no matter what.

Especially the three pilots looked ready to fight at a moments notice.

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They had been exploring the base for quite some time now.

But they had yet to find anything that truly proved what this place was for.

Even true the strange cylinders, which had been the direct cost of Rey's panic attack. Did raise Talia's suspicious about this place quite a bit.

But even so she had yet to tell any of the people around, what she was starting to believe this base had been used for. She wanted to be absolutely certain that she was right in her assumption about what the Earth Forces had been doing there.

Yet when the five of them stepped in to the next room. She knew that her deep suspicion about this base was most definitely right. There was a hold row of the same cylinders as before.

But unlike the once in the last chamber they had been in. These where not empty, in each of them where a small child, that truly seemed like they had been suffering a lot before they had died.

And when they took a closer look at all the small people in there.

They could see a great deal of tubes and wires, being attached to their bodies. Like there had actually been done some kind of experiment on them, which seemed to have been quite a painful, not to mention deeply tortures.

This place truly was sickening, and before any of them had the time to get over the deep shock they where all feeling right now. Arthur let out a loud scream as he fell over and land on the floor.

"Dear God! What...what...is this place?...What's with all of these poor children?" The man asked. While he again let his eyes ran over all the dead people in there. He was truly starting to regret that he had decided to go with the others in there.

If anybody asked him now, he could definitely say without lying, that he would have preferred to stay outside. This truly was the most horrifying thing he had ever seen.

Also looking around in there. Athrun slowly stepped over and kneel down in front of one of the cylinders. Which contented a small girl who couldn't have been more then seven or eight years old.

But what he really took notice of, was the completely frightened and confused expression she had on her face. It almost seemed like she had no idea about what was going to happen to her.

So after looking at her two small blue eyes for a second or two. He hurried turned his face away, not wanting to look at her any longer.

"This entire place is absolutely inhuman, I can't believe that anybody would do something like this!" He muttered softly to himself.

Just before he once more stood up straight, and made his way over to the captain. Who by now was standing quitely by the door, obviously thinking very hard about, what they had all seen in there.

Yet as the two of them where standing there beside each other. Nicol was also down on the floor looking a child over, this time a small blond haired boy. Who had a long wound on his left arm, which looked like had been extremely painful before he died.

So while kneeling there looking at him. Nicol slowly reached out and shut his two bloodshot eyes. After that he turned his gaze down towards the floor and mumbled out a light prayer for the small human being in front of him.

Once that was done he reach out and softly rubbed his hair a bit.

"Please rest in peace little friend!" He said. Just loud enough for the others in there to hear him.

After that he slowly got back up on his feet, and moved over next to Athrun and the captain. Where his blue haired friend reach over and gave his shoulder a small reassuring squeeze. Which made Nicol jump slightly as he hurried turned around and looked back at Athrun, where he immediately noticed the deeply sadden look on the other teenage's face.

Seeing that. Nicol smiled sadly at him, before he took single a step away from him and leaned up against the wall.

Honestly not in the mood to talk right now. This was just so utterly gruesome and terrible.

That he quite seriously doubt, that he would be able to put his feelings in to words. To tell the truth a big part of him was pretty much screaming at him to turn around and leave this place as quickly as possible.

Not really sure how to react to this place. Shinn pretty much did what came natural to him, he pulled his foot back and gave the only empty cylinder in there a hard kick, seriously trying to destroy the damn thing.

But much to his deep irritation these things was made to take quite the beating. So nothing really happened to the cylinder, even with all the power he had put in to his kick.

It did however make the short tempered boy realize one thing. And that was that there was just no way he could destroy any of the equipment in there, with only raw power alone.

And that realization, made him let out a loud grunt and a few curses.

"To hell with them! How the heck could those bastard do something like this? Don't any of them have even one shade of compassion in them?" He asked loudly.

Just before he once more gave the cylinder a hard kick, not having any more luck destroying it this time. It did however served to vent out some of the deep anger he was currently feeling.

So with his foot somewhat sore. He slowly made his way over to the others, that was just waiting for him and the deputy captain.

Once over there. He turned around and took one last look back at the deeply disturbing room. And after a few minor seconds he again muttered out a single curse.

"Damn them, they should all try and go to the same kind of pain these children went through!" He said. As both of his eyes fell shut, trying hard to forget what he and the others had found in there.

Also having some trouble figuring out how he should react to this. Arthur slowly looked over all of the cylinders.

Still utterly terrified, about what he and the others had found.

He just could not believe, that there was actually anybody in this world. That would treat so many innocence children. Like they where nothing more, then a bunch of lab rats.

"Captain...I...I...know that we came here to find some information about the Earth Forces. But do you think it would be possible that we bury them before we leave. I truly do think they deserve at least that much" he said.

Trying everything not show anybody there, how deeply sadden he was about all of this. The entire thing was just seemed so unreal to him. And even now he was having a tough time believing what they had all seen in there.

Yet before he could give it all that much thought the only woman currently present began talking to him in a gentle tone.

"Of course we are going to bury them Arthur. It wouldn't feel right to just leave them here, after everything they been through" she said softly.

While thinking about her little boy back home at the Plants. She truly missed him right now, yet she knew that it could take quite some time, before she would be able to see him again.

Yet she truly hoped that he was doing all right and that he didn't miss her too much. So while still thinking about his happy smiling face she slowly lifted her gaze away from the floor, and looked back over at Arthur.

"But before we do that, I think it would be wise, that we take a look inside the next room. I have a feeling that we can find what we are looking for in there" she said.

Just before she turned around, and slowly made her way over to the closed door, with everybody else following closely behind her.

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It wasn't long after before they where inside the next room.

Talia was sitting by an old computer, writing away at the keyboard in front of her, trying hard to find some information about this place.

Fortunately for them there had been no password on this thing, so it was pretty easy for her to go over whatever data that was inside this thing.

Yet the only somewhat interesting thing she had succeed in finding yet, was a small report about two of the children, that had tried to escape from here. But had been hunted down by some of them more obedient children.

Which had resolute in, that one of them had been shot by some boy named Auel Neider.

That apparently had some of them more murderous skills the Earth Forces's scientists there had been searching for. And even true Talia tried her best to figure out what exactly had happened to the other escapee, there was nothing in the report about it, that could tell them if he or she had actually manage to get away from this awful place.

Yet even as she continued working. The others was taking a look around in there, the room was kinda small and impersonal.

But even so. There was still three or four shelves in there, that was fill up with a bunch of small insulated glass containers, which seemed like they where each contenting what looked like a human brain.

"I seriously don't know which room was most disturbing, the last one or this one" Shinn muttered angrily.

Just before he reached out, and pinked up a random container, using a few minor seconds to look it over.

While once more thinking about how utterly disgusting this place truly was. He might not show it all that much, but he was really, really looking forward to get out of there. And get some nice fresh air down in to his lungs.

With the many dead bodies lying around all over the place.

The so call air in there was quite far from a pleasant one. Truth be told, the deeply rotten stench around the base, was just as grotesque as everything else they had seen in there.

Yet as Shinn was thinking about that. Nicol began talking to him in a quiet tone, just as he placed one of the containers back where he had found it.

Being somewhat careful not to break the thick glass. He seriously did not want to see, what this brain like thing would look like, should it fall down from it's rightful place on the shelf.

"I honestly believe Shinn, that the two rooms a just about even. I can quite frankly say, that I have seen something in both of these comrade. I could most definitely have lived without!" The green haired man said, while slowly brushing away the small amount of dust on each of his hands.

After doing that he stepped over behind the captain and looked down at the screen, to see what she was working on now.

Not that there was much of interest on the screen. Yet just as he was about to step away from her again, the brown haired woman suddenly call out after the Saviour pilot in a loud tone.

"I think I just found something here, that might just interest you Athrun!" She said loudly. Just before she turned the monitor over towards him.

Which meant that he and the others, could now see a few video footages off the Forbidden, Calamity and Raider, fighting an entire squadron of Earth Forces Strike Daggers. Which obviously didn't stand a chances against the three gundams.

And just as they all saw, the massively armed blue gundam, destroy two more of the Daggers. Athrun slowly opened his mouth and began talking in a small tone, that the others could just barely hear.

"I thought as much. But I do wonder if that was the way the choose the pilots to those machines. The three of them had a pretty lunacies fighting style" the blue haired man said. While thinking briefly about his previous encounters with the three Earth Forces gundams.

He did however not think long about it, before he again continued talking in the same tone as before.

"But I guess, that if anybody went through the exact same treatment, as those children out in the next room. They had to be pretty lucky, to get out of here without going completely insane!" He said.

Not once moving his eyes away from the Raider gundam that quickly landed on the ground. Where it immediately throw it's mace, directly in to the side of the closed opponent, destroying the grey coloured mobile suit completely.

Also watching the screen with great interest. Nicol couldn't help but narrow his eyes quite bit when he saw the Calamity.

Just the sight of the blue gundam was more then enough to bring up it's share of bad memoirs. Even now he could clearly see how that machine had mercilessly shoot down Mayura's M1 Astray.

And just the deeply painful thoughts of what the Calamity had taken from him, was more then enough to make him take a single step forward and press down on one of the buttons on the keyboard.

Which immediately brought the long video footages, of the three highly deadly mobile suits to an end. Yet it was only when he slowly pull his hand away from the old keyboard.

That a minor part of him realized, that everybody else in there, was now watching him. And knowing that Athrun was the only one there, that knew the reason for his actions, he said the very first thing that enter his mind.

"I don't want to see those machines anymore. I hate especially the Calamity!" He growled, with a deeply murderous look on his face. That none of the people gather together in the small room, had ever seen before.

Even Athrun was slightly taken back by that expression.

He had realized shortly after meeting Nicol the first time on the Minerva. That it was still a very touchy subject for Nicol to talk about Mayura. Which was the sole reason why, Athrun had been extra cautious about mention any of the Astray girls's names to him.

Unfortunately once he had found the Forbidden's scythe outside. His deep curiosity about the three mobile suits, had somehow made him forget that Nicol had lost a very, very important person to one of them.

And it was only now, that he saw the pained look in both of his eyes, that Athrun realized the mistake he had just made.

So after making absolute certain that none of the others, was about to start of the same video footages again. He slowly stepped over beside Nicol who by now was leaning up against wall. Actually sounding a bit like he was having trouble breathing properly right now.

And the look in his eyes, made it pretty clear to all of them. That he was just about ready to start, destroying everything in there.

But even true Athrun could easily tell, that the former Blitz pilot truly wanted to be left alone at the moment.

He made the decision, that it was properly, best that he apologize immediately. That way it might just be easier for Nicol, to get his thoughts over on something else other then the Calamity gundam and Mayura.

"I'm really sorry that I brought it up Nicol. It wasn't my intention to bring up any bad memories" Athrun said in a small tone, that the others just badly manage to hear.

And with a slightly guilty expression on his face. He slowly turned his sad gaze away from Nicol, and downwards at the floor. Looking at it like it was the most interesting thing in the whole world.

Hearing him say those words. Nicol immediately lift his eyes and glare somewhat angrily at his friend.

"I guess it's...it's all right Athrun, you didn't do it on purpose. Now if there is nothing more to talk about! I'll be going now, I can't stay in here any longer, I just need to get out of here!" He growled out. Just before he hastily turned around on one foot, and began making his way towards the door.

With everybody else in there looking after him. Yet before he could get all that far, Shinn call out to him in a loud tone, asking the one question Nicol truly didn't want to answer.

"Hey wait just a sec Nicol! What is it about the Calamity gundam that makes you hate it so much? Ever since I first meet you, I can't remember ever seeing you this angry before. So could you please tell us why that machine makes your blood boil so much?" The pilot of the Impulse asked loudly.

Not realizing that he was asking about a subject, that Nicol would have preferred not to talk with him or anybody else about.

Yet not really knowing what he should do with himself right now.

Nicol just kept on standing there with a completely ruffled up expression all over his face, and with a far away glimmer in both of his eyes. Not that any of the others in there, could actually see it.

And after five whole minutes had gone by in absolute silence. The displeased green haired man reach out and took a hold on the door knob, holding on to it so tightly that it actually looked a bit like he was just about ready to tear it off.

He did however not do anything like that. He just stood there with all five of his fingers firmly wrapped around the somewhat rusty handle like he was actually scared that he was going to fall over if he let the thing go.

Yet just as all of them where starting to doubt that he was going to say anything.

He let out a long breath, that actually seemed a bit like, it had been stuck somewhere down in his throat just after Shinn had asked his deeply painful question.

"The Calamity...the Calamity gundam...killed the woman I was in-love with two years ago!" He pretty much grasped out.

Just as he hurried turned the old handle and left the room. Not giving any of the people in there, the opportunity to say anything about what he had just told them.

And it was only shortly after that, when the door was once more slammed back shut, with so much force that it could most likely be heard, through half of the compound.

After that a deep silence, once more fell over the old dusty room.

"Damn it. I hadn't thought it was something as terrible like that, I just assumed that maybe the Blitz was destroyed by the Calamity. I never thought he actually lost a girlfriend to that damn machine!" Shinn muttered out through his teeth. Truly regretting that he had been so overly curious about knowing Nicol's reason, for hating the blue mobile suit.

Hearing that. Athrun slowly looked away from the door and over at him.

"Just leave him alone for now Shinn. I'm certain he will be back to his usual self in a day or two. But please don't ask him any more questions about the Calamity or Mayura, he really was crushed when she was kill by that machine" Athrun said. While thinking briefly about some of the more gruesome things, that had happened in the second battle of Jachin Due.

He did however not do that for very long. Before he once more opened his mouth, and continued talking in the same quiet tone as before.

"And to tell you the honest truth, I think a part of him is still blaming himself for not being able to do anything to save her" Athrun said, also deeply sadden about what had happened to the red haired Astray pilot. Which had meant so incredibly much to Nicol.

Not really needing a hold lot of time to think up an answer to that request. Shinn slowly nodded his response.

"You got it Athrun, I wouldn't say anything else about that mobile suit, or the girl for that matter. But I will definitely apologize to him the next time I see him" the dark haired teenage said, in a tone that made it pretty clear for all of them. That he was not going to change his mind about that.

And even true Athrun wasn't entirely sure, that it was a wise idea for any of them to mention this conversation to Nicol. He just could not bring himself to try and talk the Impulse pilot out of apologizing.

"Just don't do it right after we get out of here Shinn, give him a little time to calm down" Athrun said. Just before he turned his attention over towards the captain and Arthur, who had been pretty quiet the last few minutes, while all of this was taking place.

Yet when the blue haired FAITH member, asked if there was anything else useful for their cause inside the old computer. The captain immediately turned and once more began typing away at the keyboard.

And fortunately it did not take much time, for her to find something else interesting in there.

"It would seem like I was correct in my assumption, this really is the place where the Earth Forces have trained and created their Extendeds!" Talia said. While letting her eyes ran over the data that was now slowly running over the screen in front of her.

Hearing her say that. Shinn immediately took a step closer to her and took a look at the screen too.

"Extendeds! What the heck is that captain?" He asked. While looking confused at the many images on the screen, that show a great deal of people, who all truly did look like they where quite insane or just on the verge of being it.

Most of them truly seemed like they where ready to kill at a moment notice. And the rest of them had a none caring expression on their faces, like they didn't have any reason to live.

Yet as Shinn stood there looking at the many faces, the only other pilot in there began talking in a far away tone.

"The Extendeds Shinn, is a bunch of people, who the Earth Forces is trying to enlarge their abilities to fight. Yet unlike the military academy back at the Plants, this is done with drugs and other more painful means. Like those cylinders we saw in the last room!" Athrun explained, while the screen showed the Raider gundam and the person that apparently had been piloting it.

Yet once the screen jumped to the next picture, that showed some crazy looking brown haired girl. Athrun once more continued talking.

"But even true there is properly only a few people, that actually survivor the entire process. The Earth Forces and Blue Cosmos doesn't really care about them all that much, they are just meant to be soldiers that can fight Coordinators on an even grounds" Athrun said. While thinking about all of his previous encounters with some of the more crazy Extendeds.

Thinking thoroughly about everything Athrun had just told him. Shinn couldn't help but give his low lips an extremely hard bite.

"Damn, and I thought Blue Cosmos was crazy enough already. But this is really far out if you ask me, what the heck where does stupid bastards thinking about, don't they realize that it's other peoples life they are messing around with?" He asked in a loud angry tone.

Just before giving the wall beside him a hard kick. Truly wishing that it was the face of one of the bastards that had done so many terrible things, to the children out in the last room.

Totally agreeing with everything Shinn had said about Blue Cosmos. One seriously didn't have to look that far back in time.

To realize that the way the terrorist group and the Earth Forces was handling the whole war situation, was completely and utterly crazy, there was just so many things that could have been avoided if Blue Cosmos hadn't existed.

Yet Talia knew better then most people, that dreaming about something like that, was pretty pointless at this moment in time. It wasn't like those kind of people was just going to magically disappear all of a sudden.

And with that in mind. Talia once more turned her attention back towards screen. Truly hoping that the information they had discovered, could somehow be used to put a stop to Blue Cosmos, or at the very least put a damper on some of the more nasty things, they where trying to accomplish in the war.

So while copying down all the important data they had found in there. She slowly turned and looked over at the two pilots.

"I know that we are each pretty shake up about what we discovered in here. But I truly do believe that all of this data about the Earth Forces Extendeds project was worth going in here for. Perhaps with this in our hands, we can somehow find away prevent them from hurting people like that ever again!" The brown haired woman said in a deeply serious tone.

That was more then enough, to make both of the pilots, and Arthur nod slowly in agreement. As they all stood there waiting somewhat impatiently, for the extremely slow machine to finish copying down all the data.

Which did take quite a long time. Seeing as none of them where totally sure about, what was really important in there.

To be continued.


	33. Chapter 33

I don't really have much to say other then read and enjoy.

And don't forget to review now.

Chapter 33

It was in the early hours in the morning on the John Paul Jones.

But even true most of the crew was still fast asleep at this moment in time, the top commander of the vessel was wide away, using a pen to play around with the small fish he kept on his desk.

It hadn't been all that long since he had finished talking with Lord Djibril, who had been quite displeased about their somewhat poor success rate against the Minerva and her forces.

And it wasn't like he could just tell the terrorist leader, that they had almost succeed in destroying the grey Zaft ship. It just didn't work that way, far from it actually.

If there was one thing Neo Roanoke knew about Djibril, was that the man had a very low tolerance for mistakes and bad excuses. He wanted results no matter what it took.

Yet the mask man could frankly say, that if the Archangel had not interfered in the last battle when it did. They might have been able to finally send that the damn ship to the bottom of the sea.

"Damn it, I'm seriously getting tired of this. Perhaps the next time we run in to the Minerva, we should focus our attention on taking down the two gundams it has on board, with them out of the way, it would definitely be easier taking out the ship" he muttered quietly to himself in a thoughtful tone. While trying to come up with the best possible strategy to take out the Minerva.

Yet not knowing if the Freedom and the Archangel was going to interfere again. It was somewhat difficult for him to come up with some truly brilliant plan that would defeat the Minerva and her forces no matter what.

But as he sat there thinking about all of that. He once more began to wonder, why exactly he was having those odd feelings, like he somehow knew the pilots of both the white ZAKU and the Freedom.

Yet when he seriously thought about those two mobile suits and their pilots. He could not help but think about one of them as an enemy he hate more then anything else in the world.

But for some unknown reason, which he couldn't figure out. He did not have the same kind of hateful feelings towards the Freedom.

It was kinda like he actually cared about the person inside the white and blue gundam.

Which truly didn't make any kind of sense to him. It wasn't like he had actually meet the person piloting the Freedom, so why did that machine and the Archangel feel so damn familiar. Like they where just so incredibly important to him.

"Damn! Once we are done kicking Zaft ass in this war. I could seriously use a good long vacation. Preferably on a nice hot beach somewhere, with a ton of beautiful women running around, dressed in nothing else, other then tight skin showing sexy bathing suits!" He mumbled, with a small grin on his face. As he sat there dreaming about such a paradise.

He did however not get long to do that, before somebody suddenly knocked loudly on the door. Which resulted in that he was immediately got pull out of his slightly naughty daydream.

"Ahh man! Can't somebody get at least fifteen to twenty hours, to relax on this boat?" He unhappily asked himself. As he slowly moved his somewhat lazy gaze away from his small aquarium and over towards the door.

Seriously hoping for a second or two that the person out there would just turn around and leave. So he could either continued fantasizing about that lovely beach with the many gorgeous women playing volleyball, or perhaps find someway to destroy the Minerva.

But much to his minor annoyance the person out there apparently didn't get that he want to be alone right now. Seeing as it didn't even take a minute before there was another hard knock on the door.

Which was more then enough to make him sigh loudly, as he call for the person outside his room to come on in, and it didn't even take a minute before the grey metal door flew open, and in stepped the second in command of the vehicle.

Where he immediately gave him a small yet respectful salute, which made Neo smile slightly at him.

"What is it commander? As you can see, I'm quite busy at the moment. So please do make this short!" The mask man told him, while trying to act and sound like he seriously did have a lot of important work that need to be done in a hurry. And fortunately for him all the paper spread out all over his desk, did help him out a great deal, with his tiny bluff about him being busy.

And when the second in command realized that his timing was pretty bad right now. He let out a small breath while he hastily began explaining to him what was going on at the laboratory in Lodonia.

And the news about Zaft discovering that place, was more then enough to make a small frown ran over Neo's forehead. Not that the other man in there could actually see that.

Yet once Neo began talking to him again. The second in command had no trouble at all figuring out that the captain of the John Paul Jones, was now in an even more foul mood then before.

"That seriously is bad news, but there isn't all that much that can be done about it from our location here. It's not like we could actually take the John Paul Jones there and scare them off. So it would pretty much seem like, we are forced to leave them alone!" He said in a slightly unhappy tone. As he slowly reach over and pick up a single piece of paper.

Which made it seem like, he was going back to work now. Yet that action alone was far from enough, to get the other man to leave.

"But captain sir. I realize that the John Paul Jones can't go there. But both the Gaia and the Chaos should be able to get there with no trouble at all, and if we send all of our Windams with them as reinforcement, I'm sure that they would be able to beat all the Zaft forces gather at that laboratory!" The man said, in a loud displeased tone. As he wondered what Zaft could be doing at Lodonia.

Thinking briefly about what the man had just said to him. Neo slowly shook his head, after a couple minor seconds.

"Believe me commander, I really do understand your desire to keep Zaft away from that place. But you don't have the slightest idea about what kinda forces Zaft has there!" The mask man said. As he slowly moved his hand over, and once more used his pen to tease the small fish inside the glass aquarium.

Yet even while doing that. He opened his mouth and continued with his explanation about not wanting to send any military forces to Lodonia.

"So even true your plan about sending the Gaia and the Chaos to the Lodonia lab does sound somewhat logical. I quite frankly don't want to run the risk of losing any of those mobile suits, in attempt to recapture a base we have no interested in any longer" he explained.

Just before he took a minor glance away from his pet, and back up at the commander, where his expression made it pretty clear to Neo. That the man wasn't entirely satisfied with his decision in this matter.

But even true Neo could easily sense the deep anger from the other man. He quickly made the decision to just ignore it.

While he slowly reached over and pick up a small bottle of fish food, which he immediately pour a tiny position of in to the water. Now watching as the small creature happily eat it's breakfast.

Yet while he was sitting there admiring the little things big appetite. The other man in there was sending him a look that would definitely have scared most people quite a bit.

Unfortunately the mask man wasn't really the most easy person to intimidate. And if anybody saw the way he kept on playing with the tiny animal, they would without a doubt believe that he didn't have a care in the world.

Which to put it mildly bother the second in command quite a bit.

Yet the only thing he did to show that, was by giving his low lips a small hard bite, in a minor attempt to keep himself from saying anything disrespectful to the mask man.

"But sir! Don't you think it would be a wise choice to at least discourse the matter with high command. You never know if somebody accidently left something critical behind back there!" He said loudly, while seriously hoping that the blond man would take his word serious.

And stop fooling around with that disgusting animal. He quite honestly didn't get how the mask man could give that creature so much attention, while they having such an important conversation.

And a small part of him was actually tempted to just grab the aquarium and flush the fish out in the nears toilet to get rid of it. He really hate that ugly thing right now.

Once more moving his gaze away from the small animal, and upwards at the slightly older man. Where he couldn't stop himself from narrow his eyes a bit underneath his mask.

"As far as I know, that place was fill with people, that was actually able to use more then just ten percent of their brain. So if they actually did leave something behind back there, I'm pretty sure that it wasn't all that important to begin with!" He said. Not doing one thing to hide, that he was quite frankly getting tired of this discussion about the Lodonia lab.

Yet before the other man could come up with something else to say.

The mask man took in a long deep breath, as he again opened his mouth and continued speaking in the exact same tone as before.

"And our orders here are to hunt down and destroy the Minerva. So there is just no way I'm going to use our valuable resource and time to fight for a base we have already abandoned once!" He said. Seriously hoping that this was the end of this discussion.

He really didn't want to waste anymore time arguing with the other man about this.

To put it lightly he was starting to work on his last nerve. So if he actually kept on insisting to continue this discussion. Neo might just have to throw him out of there in the end.

Fortunately the man seemed to realize that the conversation was about over.

"Very well sir I understand! Yet once we are finished out here, I will be sure to mention to high command. Your unwillingness to help out in this matter!" He said in a proud tone.

Which made it pretty obvious to Neo that he was serious about this. Yet those brainless threats, didn't really offend Neo all that much. He just sat there looking up at the other man for a second or two.

Then he slowly opened his mouth and let out a big loud yawn. Like he was extremely bored with the whole thing, and just on the verge of falling asleep right there in his chair.

And his next words almost made the other man's face completely red with anger and hatred.

"You do what you want! Do you need some help to write your report, or can you do it on your own? Your name is after all pretty long, so it might be a little hard for you to spell on your own. Now what was the first letter again do you remember that?" He asked. Making it sound very much like he was actually talking with a small kid.

And even true, most people would properly have been quite scared of that deep hateful look, the second in command was presently giving him.

Neo didn't really give it all that much attention, a small part of him was actually hoping, that the other man would try something. That way he could throw him down in to the closed cell, and be free from his damn complaining for the rest of the trip.

Unfortunately the man was way to smart to do something stupid like that.

"I will be seeing you later sir. I'll be going back to the bridge now" he said out through his teeth. Then turned around and left the room, still with that deep murderous glare in both of his eyes.

Seeing him leave like that. Neo slowly leaned back in his somewhat comfortable chair.

"Wow man talk about a short fuse! Apparently I'm not the only one here, that could use a vacation. No way I'm taking that fool along on mine, he can go somewhere else like the north pole" the mask man mumbled. While taking another glance over at his fish, that was now peaceful swimming around with no idea about what had just happened between it's owner and that other man.

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Meanwhile out in the John Paul Jones' halls.

A certain almost hysterical man. Was slowly making his way down to the ships mess hall, determined to get a steaming cup of newly made coffee, in a minor attempt to calm himself down. After the argument he had just been having with that mask wearing bastard.

"Damn, that arrogant fool! Who the heck does he think he is talking to me like that? I was a member of Logos long before he had even heard of the organization. So why the heck, do I have to take orders from that man!" He growled loudly to himself, while thinking about some of the more unrealistic actions the mask man would from time to time do in the middle of a battle.

He might not show it all that much to the other crew members on the John Paul Jones. But a very big part of him firmly believed that someday in the future, one of the blond man's more crazy strategies would get them all killed.

"I seriously don't understand how Lord Djibril could choose that bastard, as the commander of this this vessel over me. I have been a loyal support of Logos for so many years now! So how the heck can some foolish novice, come from out of nowhere, and take the position which is rightfully mine!" The displeased officer asked.

Just as he turned and enter the mess hall.

Where the first thing he noticed in there was the blond pilot of the Gaia gundam.

The teenage girl was sitting quietly by herself, at the very end of the mess hall. Where she was playing around with that crappy seashell, she was always carrying with her just about everywhere she went.

That was another thing he didn't understand.

Why the heck was an almost useless tool like this little brat, walking around with something like that. For what reason had the mask wearing bastard decided to let her keep that thing.

Yet when he had asked Roanoke about it, the man had just told him, that it was Stella's and that she could keep it if that was what she truly wished to do. Even if she had no memories about where she had gotten it from in the first place.

He however didn't think a tool like her should be permitted to have something like that. She was a killing machine and nothing else in his eyes, and that dumb piece of crap did have a somewhat calming effect on the girl.

"Why does he treat such useless equipment, as those kids so well?" He asked himself.

While he watched the blond haired brat lift the seashell up to her ear. Where a small content smile made it pretty obvious to him, that she was really enjoying listening to the sounds that was coming out of the shell.

Yet once he heard a small soft humming from the girl. He couldn't help but narrow his eyes a bit.

"If this continue on like that, she is going to be even more worthless then she already is. Why the hell can't Roanoke understand that, we need to make extra sure that neither of these brats get to much of a normal life. That would most definitely ruin their high combat capability!" He muttered quietly. While still watching the girl just as she began slowly running her fingers over the seashell, like it was one of the most important things in her life.

Yet even true this display would usually make most people happy and delighted to know, that the girl was having a good time right now.

The second in command however had a completely different reaction to all of this. He honestly thought the whole thing was absolutely disgusting.

'I seriously need to do something about this. Before we end up losing the little perfect killing machine' he thought determined, before he slowly started making his way over the innocent girl. That was still having a nice peaceful moment by herself.

It was however only once he stood directly in front of her, that she finally took a small glance away from the seashell and up at him.

Yet before he could get his mouth open and say anything to her.

The blond haired girl slowly turned her attention away from him, and back towards the seashell. Which she once more continued playing with, acting pretty much like he wasn't even there.

And just the sight of her doing that, was more then enough to piss him even more off then he was already. First that bastard to Roanoke had talked to him like he was a complete nobody and now this little bitch was ignoring him.

Which seriously made him feel like just wrapping both of his hands around her throat. And just watch as her almost worthless life slowly left her. Yet he knew he had to remain calm if he wanted this girl to do his biding.

And with that in mind he began talking to her, in the most sweet and caring tone he could muster under these circumstance.

"You know what girl, it hasn't really been all that long since we where informed that Zaft has capture our laboratory in the Lodonia region. And if we don't somehow get it back, we might all end up getting kill by Zaft!"

Just hearing that man say those words. Was more then enough to make Stella completely frozen with fear, as she sat there looking up at the man with wide eyes, and it was only because he was concentrating his hearing that he understood her next words.

"Killed...? Are they really going to kill us all?" The frightened girl asked in a small tone. While a single tear ran down her right cheek, and landed with a soft splash on the white seashell.

Not that any of them noticed that. Stella was too far away in her panic attack, while the large man was completely rejoice in the fact. That it had been so easy for him to manipulate the girl.

And it was pretty clear by her frightened expression. That the only thing needed now, was one more minor push, and he could get the naive teenage to do just about everything he wanted.

"Yes, if we don't do something to stop the Zaft force gather at Lodonia, there is a very high possibility that you and everybody else here could end up dead!" He told her in a sweet tone. While he watched the expression on her face get even more panicky and scared.

And he only had to wait a few short seconds before he heard the girl's next words.

"Dead!...I...I...don't want to be dead, I'm scared...!" She said sounding very, very much like a small child, that had just heard her very first ghost story. And actually believed every single word she had just heard.

Yet before she could say anything else. The man told her that they where all going to be so sad and lonely when she was gone.

Which was more then enough to make her let out a loud whimpering sound.

Just as she collapsed down on to her knees. Where even more tears left her slightly red eyes, and began making their way down her face.

"Stella doesn't...doesn't want to be gone. Stella wants to stay alive no matter what!" The frightened girl sobbed softly in to her hands. Not realizing that the man who had put her in this miserable state, was actually smiling wickedly at the way she was acting right now.

And before she could say anything else the man slowly kneel down next to her, and whispered a few words in to her ear.

"If you are really that frightened Stella, you should do something about it. I already explained to you that if you stop the Zaft forces at the Lodonia laboratory, then all of us is going to keep on living" he said in a gentle tone.

Actually doing quite a good job in sounding like he was truly trying to protect her, from the very thing that was scaring her so incredibly much.

Hearing him say that. The blond haired girl slowly got back up on her feet, still with that deeply frightened look in her eyes. "Yes Stella will do something, that way nothing will happen to Stella, and she can keep staying alive!" The girl said.

Just before she turned around and began walking slowly towards the exit of the mess hall. Looking very much like some sort of sleepwalker, that was in serious need of some help right now.

Unfortunately the few people that did noticed her, was simply way to scared of her and the rest of Phantom Pain. To even consider for a second to help the poor girl out.

Which pretty much meant, that there was nothing between her, and the destination she had in mind.

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And it was only a few short minutes later, when she enter the hangar.

Where she didn't waste any time in making her way over to the Gaia gundam. That was standing in it's usual location at the very end of the hangar, directly behind the Abyss.

Which a few of the younger mechanics was busy trying to repair, after the massive damage the Freedom had made on the blue mobile suit, in the last battle they had been in.

Not that the totally freaked out girl pay all that much attention to that.

The only thing she was interested in right now, was getting in the Gaia and getting out of there as quickly as possible.

Yet just as she was about to get in to the mobile suit, somebody began talking to her in a loud tone. "What's going on Loussier! It's very unusual for you to be down here, unless we are going out in to battle!" The chief mechanic asked.

Before taking a short glance down at the report in his hand, which told him that they still needed to do a few minor adjustments to the Gaia. Before it was completely ready for combat again.

He did however not get much time to really study the report. Before a small fist came flying in from out of nowhere and hit him straight in the face.

And even true there wasn't really all that much force in the attack. It was still enough to knock him over, simply because the punch took him completely by surprise.

So after sitting there for a few minor seconds, trying to clear his head and figure out what had just happened. He saw the teenage girl crawl in to the Gaia, where she immediately closed the cockpit after herself.

"What the heck do you think you are doing Loussier?" He asked loudly.

Just as a small glow flash through both of the mobile suit's blue eyes. And it was only shortly after that, when the Phase Shift armor was activated, and the now black gundam began moving around.

And before either him or anybody else could do something. They all heard the girl's voice shout out through the hangar.

"Open the hangar now, before I blast my way through the door!" She yelled loudly. While moving the mobile suit around in such a way, that it actually seemed quite a bit like, she was just about ready to fire the rifle in to the side of the ship.

Hearing her say that, the chief mechanic hurried got back up on his feet, where he immediately call out after the girl. "Stella Loussier! Please try and calm down. Then we will call captain Roanoke down here. So you can talk with him about what made you do this!" The man yelled, in one last desperate attempt to get the girl to stop what she was doing right now.

But even true Neo's name usually did have a somewhat calming effect on the girl.

This time around it was just no use, she was simply to scared and freaked out about everything the second in command had said to her not long ago.

So pretty much the only thing she did. Even after hearing the chief mechanic's words, was to once more scream out for them to open the hangar door, and let her out of there. Before she blow the ship apart.

And hearing those few words, was enough to make the slightly overweight man realize that there was nothing he or anybody else there could do, to talk the blond girl out of this.

And not really overly keen on losing his life to this insane brat. He quickly turned and looked down at a few other mechanics.

"Why the heck are you two just standing looking stupid, stop wasting time and get the hangar door open. Before she actually sinks the entire ship!" The mechanic yell out in a loud treating tone, that promised both of them a lot of pain, if they didn't do what he said.

Fortunately the two of them valued their lives so much, that neither of them felt like arguing about what he had just said.

And it was only a few short minutes after that, when the Gaia gundam left the ship. And ran off in to the horizon, as fast as it's four legs could carry it.

Once completely out of sight. The two mechanic who had opened the hangar door slowly fell to the floor.

"Damn, I seriously thought she was going to kill us all!" One of them said. While he tried everything to calm his rapidly beating heart down, which pretty much felt like it was ready to fly straight out of his chest.

Yet as he was sitting there, he didn't see his friend nod a few times in agreement. "Yeah tell me about it. That really was nerve-racking. I'm glad that's over with!" The other one said, also breathing quite hard at the moment.

They did however not get long to relax. Before the chief mechanic began yelling loudly at them.

"What in the hell are you guys talking about, this is far from over with, we need to hurry and inform captain Roanoke about this. And it would definitely be wise for us to try and figure out why she freaked out the way she did!" The man said loudly. While hastily making his way over to them, so he end up standing directly in front of them.

Hearing him say that, they each turned and looked up at him.

"I already know why she did this boss. She is absolutely insane just like the two other gundam pilots on this ship!" The right one said. While thinking about how many times, he had witnessed that Auel kid threatening one of the other crew members on the ship.

Not really overly surprised at hearing something like that. After the life and death experience all of them had just been through the chief engineer narrowed his eyes a tiny bit.

"Well I certainly don't want to disagree with you guys after this. But one thing I have noticed about that Stella girl, is that she only freaks out like that, if there is somebody nearby who is talking about killing or death. So I'm pretty sure that there is somebody around this ship that made her do all of this!" He said, in a deeply thoughtful tone.

Now just standing there trying to figure out if there was anybody on board the John Paul Jones. Who didn't know about the teenage's problem with the whole death and killing thing.

Yet before he could really start thinking about it. Roanoke and the two other gundam pilots enter the hangar.

"Would somebody please tell me what the heck happened down here, and more importantly where is the Gaia?" The mask man asked in a loud displeased tone.

While slowly letting his hard angry glare, ran over the condition of the hangar.

Not that there was much to see down there.

Pretty much the only notable differences in the hangar, was that they where now missing one of their extremely powerful mobile suits, which they had gone through so much trouble to steal from Zaft in the first place.

And after hearing the mask man repeat his loud question, one more time.

The chief mechanic let out a deep breath.

As he began making his way over to the captain of the enormous grey war ship, absolutely determined to tell the blond man about everything that had taken place down here, not that long ago.

000000

It was a half hour later back in Neo's room.

It hadn't really been difficult to figure out who exactly had fill Stella's head with the whole kill and death thing. And knowing that the man had only done it as a way to get back at him, for not treating him with the respect he wanted was more then enough to piss Neo off quite a bit.

Doing something so idiotic to one of the people he cared about was a big mistake. And he had immediately order, after learning the identity of the culprit that the man was throw in the closed cell for risking all of their lives, and for losing the Gaia gundam.

"Damn it! If I had know he was that crazy, I would have had him transfer off this ship a long time ago" the blond muttered. As he reached up and slowly removed his mask, which he placed on the desk in front of him.

After that he moved his hand up and rubbed both of his blue eyes in a tired manner.

"I really do hope that Stella comes to her sense. Before she actually reach the Lodonia lab, even if she is in the Gaia. I seriously doubt that she can handle all the Zaft forces there on her own!" He said. Generally worried about the blond haired girl, who had taken off not long ago to fight their enemies all on her own.

He sincerely hoped that she could somehow survive the meeting with whatever forces Zaft had at Lodonia.

If she actually did that, there was a possibility that they might be able to get her back at some point in the future.

"If you do lose your life in this. I'll be sure to avenge your death!" He said in a determined tone. As he reached out and pick up his mask, which he once more placed where it belonged on his head.

After doing that he slowly stood up and began making his way over to the door.

"I better make completely certain that both Auel and Sting forgets all about Stella. If they remember her it might be hard for them to fight like they use to!" He said to himself.

Before he opened the door and left the small room.

To be continued.


	34. Chapter 34

Chapter 34

It had not been long since Athrun and Shinn had finished taking yet another look around the creepy base.

"I seriously hope we can get out of here soon. I already gather more then enough material for a dozen of nightmares!" The pilot of the Impulse said, while turning his eyes upwards towards thick clouds that was hanging far above the base.

Just one tiny glance at them, was more then enough to make it clear. That it would not be long now, before it was going to rain. Fortunately they where just about ready to return back to the ship.

Which meant that they could properly avoid most of the heavy rain, that was treating to fall on them at any minute now.

He did however not get long to watch the somewhat gloomy skies. Before the person walking beside him began talking in quite a far away tone.

"I do agree with you Shinn that this place is quite depressing. But I most admit I'm slightly disappointed that we weren't able to find anything else about the Extendeds project or whatever the Earth Forces call it, while they where here!" Athrun said.

While at the same time going over all the more terrible things, they had found inside this base.

And those thoughts alone, was more then enough to make him wish, that they had found something in there. That could somehow prevent the Earth Forces from ever doing something this cruel again to another human being.

Thinking a brief second or two about what the other gundam pilot had just said. The red eyed teenage found himself nodding slowly in agreement.

"Yeah that really would have been great. But I guess we just have to be satisfied with the knowledge, that they wouldn't be able to use this damn place again anytime soon. Even true I seriously do want to beat the crap out of those bastards that ran this place!" He said, while he slowly narrowing his eyes a bit.

After seeing all of those things inside this base.

The teenage just couldn't help but feel somewhat impatient about leaving this place. He seriously wanted to show those Earth Forces bastards, just how he felt about them treating other human beings in such a none caring way.

Truth be told, there was a minor part of him, which was actually looking forward to their next encounter with the Earth Forces. So he could give them such a beating that they would never be able to forget him or the Impulse gundam.

Yet as he was dreaming about that. Athrun once more interrupted his thoughts.

"Yeah it certainly can't be denied, that it is a good thing that we are able to keep them away from this place. But if you take a logical look at it Shinn, it's nothing more then a temporary solution, we have to stop the Earth Alliance before they can start up another place like this, or do something even more repulsive!" The blue haired young man said, in a deeply determined tone.

Already knowing what the Saviour pilot had just told him was the truth. Shinn slowly opened his mouth, and was just about to tell Athrun that he totally agreed with him about everything he had just said.

Yet before he could get even one sentence out, a loud siren could be heard over the entire area. Which could only mean that they where just about to be attacked or there was some kind of threat heading their way.

"Ahhh man! What the heck is happening now! Don't tell me that those stupid bastards, have actually gone through the trouble of traveling all the way back here. Just to try and scar us away?" Shinn shouted loudly, while trying to figure out the reason for the alarm.

Fortunately the whole place seemed pretty empty, which made him wonder if this was actually a drill of some kind.

He did however not get the opportunity to voice his suspicion about the alarm.

When the very person, he had been talking with about the Earth Alliance for the last few minutes, place a hand on his left shoulder. Which immediately made him turn around, and look back at the slightly older teenage behind him.

"Lets hurry back to the Saviour and the Impulse, so we can figure out what this is about!" Athrun said in a deep serious tone.

While taking a brief look around the area. Where he immediately noticed that everybody else out there, was now making a hastily withdrawal back to whatever ship they where assigned to. None of them wanting to be out there incase this really did turn out to be a full-scale assault by whatever forces that was approaching the up until now deserted base.

So still with no clear signs of enemies nearby.

The two young pilots turned around and ran full speed back towards their mobile suits. That was fortunately still standing outside, since they had first entered the base.

It wasn't long after that before both of the pilots was back in their respective mobile suits.

"Captain Gladys? Both Shinn and I are back in our mobile suits and ready to take off. But to be honest I don't see any kind of hostile forces nearby, so could one of you please tell us what this is about?" Athrun asked loudly, while still trying to find the direct source of this commotion.

Yet there was still not a thing to see above the base, other then the clouds.

That was most definitely getting more dark and gloomy, by every single moment that went by.

And even true it couldn't be denied, that the thick clouds was almost the perfect cover to launch a surprise attack of some kind, there was just nothing to see up there that looked overly life treating.

Which was truly a bit bizarre.

Hearing Athrun ask that and realizing where the Minerva's two gundam pilot was trying to find the enemies. The captain of the grey space ship slowly narrow both of her eyes slightly, as she began speaking to them in a serious voice.

"The reason why the two of you, are unable to find anything up there. Is because the enemy which is now approaching our location, is coming by ground. It's the Gaia gundam!" The brown haired woman explained. Somewhat concerned about what exactly the Earth Forces was planing by sending that machine here on it's own.

But up until now she had already asked Meyrin twice if there was anything else out there somewhere.

Yet from the looks of things there was nothing around that could back the Gaia up in this battle.

Which truly did make her suspicion about this whole thing raise even more. What in heaven's name where the Earth Forces thinking, they could not possibility believe that they could recapture this base with just the Gaia gundam alone.

She did however not get the opportunity to tell the two pilots about her concern, when Shinn decided to interrupt her and tell them his opinion about this.

"This is just great! If that freakish four legged machine is here all by itself. I can finally get even with it, and tear it in to four identical pieces of trash!" The red eyed pilot said.

With a slightly wicked smirk on his lips. Which made it pretty obvious for everybody that was watching this conversation, that he was seriously itching for a rematch against the black stolen gundam.

Yet before he could really start planing, what truly terrible things he was going to do to the Gaia. The pilot over in the red gundam began telling him what exactly their strategy was going to be for this battle.

"Shinn I do understand that you want to get even with the Gaia and it's pilot. Yet neither of us have any idea about what precisely it's motivation for being here is, and what it might be carrying around!" Athrun said. While using a second or two to go over his own battles with the black mobile suit.

Hearing the former member of the Le Creuset team telling him something like that. Shinn just couldn't help but let out a few colourful curses.

"So what exactly do you want me to do commander Zala? And please do make up your mind fast, because here it comes!" The boy shouted out loudly.

Just before the black BuCUE like mobile suit came over the hill top, and was now hastily coming straight towards them, undoubtedly determined to take both of them on at the same time.

"Defeat it without blowing it up Shinn. There has been a lot of talk recently about trying to get the three stolen mobile suits back. And recovering the Gaia would be a big step in that direction. And perhaps the person inside that machine knows something about this place!" Athrun explained loudly, to his fellow mobile suit pilot over in the Impulse. Seriously hoping that this time around Shinn would follow his orders.

He did however not get long to worry about it, before the Gaia fired off it's three beam weapons at them. Which forced both of them to get their mobile suits moving and get out of the way in a hurry.

"Yeah, yeah I'll try and take it down without messing it up too much!" Shinn growled out in a unhappy tone.

Just as he quickly took aim and fired two shoots after the fast running machine.

That swiftly change it's direction and was now heading full speed towards the Saviour. That at this moment in time was floating not far above the ground, clearly trying to find an opening in the Gaia's fighting style.

Which wasn't really the most difficult thing to spot right now.

There wasn't really all that much sanity in the way it was attacking them. It actually seemed a bit like the only reason it was fighting them at the moment. Was because there was nothing else nearby it could go up against.

Yet as Athrun was thinking about that. The enemy gundam was getting dangerously close to the Saviour, which truthfully did worry the pilot of the Impulse slightly.

He and Athrun might not agree on everything. There was however no way he wanted to voluntarily see the Saviour getting hit by those damn beam blades.

But once he got his rifle up and was about to press down on the trigger. He quickly realized that if he began shooting now, there was a very big possibility he might just hit the Saviour instead.

"You idiot! Move it already!" He yelled loudly. Just when it seemed like the two mobile suits was about to smash together.

Yet just before that could actually happen. The Saviour got over in to it's mobile armor mode and took of full speed straight upwards, and away from the more earth bound war machine.

"Thanks for the warning Shinn! But I'm all right, I was just trying to figure out what the Gaia's purpose is for being here. But it pretty much seems to me like, that the only reason why the pilot actually came here, was to look for a fight!" The blue haired man said.

Still not seeing any kind of logic in the Gaia's odd behaviour, or it's somewhat reckless attempts to defeat both of them.

Hearing that. Shinn fired two more shoots down after the still quadruped mode transformed mobile suit.

Which quickly jumped over the beams and without even take the time to aim properly the Gaia fired it's own beam weapons up after him. Two of them flying far past him, while the last one hit the shield.

"Well if this bastard is looking for an ass kicking. I'll say we give the crazy little bitch what she wants!" Shinn yelled. Only now remembering in the heat of the moment that it was a girl, who was the pilot of the Gaia.

Not that it matter all that much to him who was inside that damn machine. The only thing he cared about right now, was to show her, just what he truly thought about her killing Heine.

And with that in mind .he again point the beam rifle down at the Gaia, which was now running hastily over the rocky ground, clearly trying to make itself a harder target to hit.

But that only served to make Shinn even more determined to take the Gaia out.

So just as it again land on the ground and change direction. He began firing the beam rifle down at the black mobile suit. This time destroying the beam rifle that was sitting on it's right side on the BuCUE like mobile suit.

Yet just when it actually seemed like the rifle was about to blow up, and do some serious damage to the Gaia, the weapon fell away from it's location on the mobile suit and exploded not far behind the quadrupedal mobile armor.

Which pretty much meant that the enemy machine was still more then ready to fight.

But it was becoming quite obvious for all the people that was watching the battle, that the Gaia was starting to have some serious trouble going up against the Saviour and the Impulse.

And even now as it was making it's way over the exact same hill it had appeared from in the first place.

Athrun hurried got his red machine back over in to it's mobile suit mode, where he immediately fired of both plasma cannons down after the Gaia. Taking off the right one of the beam blades, and knocking the Gaia over on to it's back.

But that was far from enough to actually put a stop to the black mobile suit.

So as it was laying there on the ground, both pilots watched, as it got over in to it's mobile suits mode the very first time since it had arrived there.

Yet with the beam rifle destroyed, it's only option for a weapon was to pull out one of it's beam sabers.

But even true the black mobile suit was still quite a dangerous foe. Even all the way down on the ground.

It seemed pretty much impossible for it to reach the two other gundams, that by now was floating far above the enemy machine, just waiting to see what it's next move was going to be.

And it quickly became obvious for both of the Zaft pilots, that the person inside the Gaia gundam only had one objective in her head at the moment. And that was to do battle with them.

It almost seemed like the crazy little bitch as Shinn had call her before. Had completely forgotten that she was all but surround by enemy forces, who where all ready to take her on, should she actually defeat the two Zaft gundams.

The three mobile suits did however not get long to have their little staring contest. When Talia suddenly cut in and began talking to the Minerva's two gundam pilots in a loud tone.

"Not that I'm impatient or anything like that you two. But the commander of the Tsuchi has already bugged me twice about sending out his own mobile suit forces. Apparently he believes that the task of defeating the Gaia is better left in the hands of real soldiers, instead of two little kids as he so kindly described it!" The brown haired woman said. Not doing anything to hide that she was seriously getting tired of that man's constant complaining.

Hearing what was now giving the leader of the Tsuchi grey hair and wrinkles on his forehead. Shinn couldn't stop himself from saying the very first thing that enter his mind.

"Man what an idiot! Why the heck couldn't we have left the Tsuchi behind. That would definitely have made this trip at least a little easier to bear!" The unhappy pilot said in a angry voice.

Before taking a brief glance away from the Gaia gundam, and over at the Compton class, that was clearly just waiting for the right excuse to send it's own mobile suit forces out.

And if the pilots of that ship was just as stubborn and smug as the commander. There wouldn't be anything left of the Gaia to capture.

Yet just as the red eyed boy got his mouth opened and was about to yell out a few more curses about the commander of the Tsuchi.

The pilot over in the other gundam interrupted him, before he could even get one word out.

"I totally agree with you Shinn about that man being quite unbearable. But I do believe we should show him, a thing or two about what two little kids can do!" Athrun said in a low tone. Also feeling more then just a little tired of the Tsuchi's commander.

To be completely honest. Athrun had met his fair share of stubborn and headstrong people, in his time as a soldier.

But this man definitely took the first place, he could pretty much get on everyone's nervous.

Athrun actually felt more and more certain that even his old commander Rau Le Creuset would have run out of patient with this man, and would have tried to strangle him at some point in time.

He did however not get long to imagine that, before Shinn's voice pull him back to reality.

"Ok Athrun you just lead the way! I seriously want to humiliate this bastard and show him, who the heck he is talking about!" The red eyed boy said, in a determined tone, as he again turned his attention back down towards the Gaia, that was still standing on the ground not doing anything.

Smiling slightly at his fellow pilot's words. Athrun too looked back down at the black mobile suit.

And even from all the way up there. He could easily tell that the Gaia still had it's beam saber out, and that it was just waiting for the two of them to come back down there, so they could continue their battle.

"All right then, here is what we are going to do Shinn, your only job is to remove the Gaia's left arm, while you do that I'll take care of the right one. If it's armless it shouldn't really be that hard to overpower!" The blue haired man said.

Still keeping a close eye on the Gaia for anything abnormal. Yet as far as he could tell it didn't really do anything that forced him to rethink his plan.

And even true this strategy was kinda simple. Shinn found himself agreeing with the idea almost immediately. He seriously did not want to waste anytime in showing the thick-headed commander of the Tsuchi, just how good a pilot he truly was.

"That's sounds all right to me Athrun, now lets go and show everybody what the pilots of the Minerva can REALLY DO!" He shout loudly.

And with nothing more to say to each other. The two pilots took of full speed towards the Gaia, that immediately tried to shoot them down with the two beam assault cannons on it's back.

Yet neither of the Coordinators had all that much trouble avoiding the attacks. But that only served to make the mostly black colour gundam, fire even more beams of after them.

Which kinda made the task of removing the arms a bit more difficult.

Yet after reducing the distance between them and the Gaia a bit more. Both of the Zaft pilots pull out their sabers, then hurried increase their speed slightly.

Just as they evade another round of beams from the Gaia, after that the black mobile suit hurried slammed it's saber out after the Saviour. That of course defend itself with it's own close combat weapon.

Yet as the black and red mobile suits, where snuggling hard with each other for control.

Shinn made a quick manoeuvre to the side, then immediately thrust his own saber out after the Gaia, and thanks to the small diversion the Saviour was providing right now. The female pilot inside the Gaia had no idea what was happening before it was to late.

And once they all saw the left arm hit the ground, the Gaia hurried jump away from the Saviour in a somewhat desperate attempt to get some distance between them.

But that only serve to be the final error in this battle.

As Athrun hurried fired of the two plasma cannons, blowing the right arm straight of the Gaia and sending the black mobile suit crashing straight to the ground, where it immediately lost the last bit of it's power.

Seeing that happening Shinn hurried put the beam saber back where it belong on the Impulse, then turned and flash the Tsuchi a victory sign. Which he frankly hoped would piss the annoying commander over there even more off.

Yet once he heard Athrun let out a few light chuckles. He lowed the hand and looked over at the Saviour.

"What now? Ohhh great and powerful leader!" He asked. Not doing anything to hide, that he was joking around right now.

But not all that surprising Athrun answer his question with a great deal of seriousness in his voice.

"We will stay here and keep guard, you never know if the person in the Gaia still in the mood to fight. So we better make absolutely certain that she is unable to keep resisting us, before we get out of our mobile suit!" Athrun said. While turning both of his eyes downwards towards the Gaia, that hadn't moved since it land there not long ago.

He knew that it was very likely, that whoever was inside the armless mobile suit was unconscious right now.

But he certainly didn't want to run the risk of either Shinn or him getting shoot while they where trying to get the Gaia's cockpit open.

If the woman piloting the BuCUE like mobile suit was crazy enough to attack this place on her own. There was literally no telling what else she might do.

So he would definitely feel a whole lot better about the situation. If it was a few well equipped soldiers who pull the highly reckless and somewhat insane pilot out of the black war machine.

And even as he was thinking about that. He realized that the captain apparently had the same thought on her mind, seeing as both Rey and Nicol was now slowly making their way over to the Gaia, with a few other soldiers following closely behind them.

Yet once they got up on the gundam. Shinn let out a deep obviously bore breath, which could clearly be heard over the radio.

"Doesn't seem like anything is going to happen, can I please head back to the Minerva now, I'm hungry?" He complained loudly. While slowly turning his gaze away from the grey gundam and over at the Saviour, seriously hoping that Athrun would allow him to go back to the ship and get something to eat.

He was however in for a disappointment, as Athrun told him to stay put until they got the cockpit open. "Ah man what are bother, can't they hurry up down there. It's not like I got all day to sit out here!" He said. While turning his attention back towards the Gaia, where he could easily tell that they where having some trouble getting the cockpit open.

Apparently the emergency release system had taken some damage, when the mobile suit had crash to the ground. Yet before the short temper boy in the Impulse had the necessary time to complain about that, Athrun cut him off.

"Captain Gladys, unfortunately it doesn't seem to be possible to get the Gaia's cockpit open out here. We need to get it back to the hangar, so the mechanics can try and force it open!" He told the brown haired woman.

While at the same time, still making extra sure to keeping a very close eye on everything that was going on. Not that far away from where the Saviour was standing at the moment.

Hearing him say that, it took least then a second before the female officer began talking back. "Are you absolutely certain that's our only option Athrun? I don't want any crew members to get hurt over this!" The woman asked in a deep serious tone. As she watched the video footages of Nicol and Rey once more trying to get the Gaia's cockpit open.

Yet one small look at them, was more then enough to make it clear. That they had no more luck gaining access to the stolen gundam this time around, then any of the previous attempts they had made to get in to the mobile suit.

And once she heard Athrun's next words.

She made the decision, that it was properly best to get the armless mobile suit on board the Minerva as quickly as possible. Before the highly irritating commander of the Tsuchi could start complaining again.

"I don't think you have anything to worry about captain, it seems very unlikely that the person inside the Gaia is even conscious right now. So I frankly doubt she is all that much of a threat at the moment!" Athrun said.

Just as he saw the two other Minerva pilots and the soldiers began making their way down from the Gaia. They too apparently realizing, that getting the cockpit open now, was pretty much impossible.

And once all of them where safely back down on the ground. Athrun turned his attention over towards the Impulse gundam, wondering briefly what Shinn was doing right now. He had been pretty quiet the last few minutes, which was kinda unlike him.

"Mine giving me a hand with this Shinn? We need to be a little careful when carrying the Gaia back to the Minerva. I know that the girl in here has done some terrible things. But if she is actually seriously injure in there, we shouldn't really shake the Gaia around to much!" Athrun said.

And without waiting for a reply, he slowly kneel down and careful took a hold on the Gaia.

Yet it was only when Shinn grapped on to the legs, that they cautiously lifted the grey gundam. And together the two Zaft pilots carefully began transporting the smash up mobile suit, back to the Minerva.

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It was just about twenty minutes later down in the Minerva's hangar.

The Gaia was laying on the floor, while Yolant and Vino was trying their best to get the mobile suit open.

Which had proven to be quite a hard task to do. No matter what the two young mechanics thought of they just couldn't, get the emergency release system to function as it was suppose to.

Which meant that the enemy pilot inside the Gaia was pretty much trap in there.

"Damn I'm running out of ideas fast, this stupid thing is just impossible to get to work right now. It actually seems like that the only way we can get in to the Gaia is to remove the cockpit hatch, and that can take quite a long time if we don't want to injure the pilot in there!" Yolant said in a thoughtful. And still with all of this attention turn towards the hatch.

Where his expression made it clear to all of them, that he was thinking quite hard about how to the Gaia open in a hurry.

Yet as he was thinking about that Vino came with a suggestion that actually made some sense to all of them.

"Well if the release system is so badly damage that we can't get it to work, why don't we just borrow the release system from Impulse's Chest Flyers. It's pretty much the same one that's on all of the gundams, so it should be able to get the Gaia's cockpit open!" He said. While looking over at the Saviour and the Impulse, that was standing beside each other, not that far away from them.

Thinking a brief second or two about what his friend's suggestion. The other mechanic felt a small smile ran over his lips.

"That's a great idea Vino! You are not nearly as stupid as you look!" He said loudly.

Just before he turned around and rush full speed over to the ladder, which he quickly descend down to the ground, where he immediately began making his way over to the door, that lead to the place where all the Silhouettes was store.

Not totally happy about hearing his friend's last comment. Vino kept on glaring after his best friend until he was completely out of sight.

"Ok that was just mean. He is definitely going to pay for that one later!" The mostly brown haired boy said in a determined tone.

Just before he slowly began crawling down the ladder, being slightly more careful then Yolant had been. He seriously didn't want to fall down from up there, he might not show it much. But it always made him a tiny bit nervous being high up like this.

Properly because he had fallen down from a tree once when he was about four or five years old.

And even true the fall hadn't really been that long. He had still ended up breaking his left arm when he had hit the ground. Which had truthfully hurt like hell, and there was just no way he want to experience that again if he could avoid it.

So it took a few more minutes before he disappeared through the same door Yolant had ran out off not long ago.

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Seeing them leave like that. And knowing what they where about to do. Shinn could not stop himself from narrowing his eyes a tiny bit. He seriously disliked the idea of them pulling out one of the Impulse's parts to save an enemy pilot.

Yet he realized that it wouldn't do him any good argue about it. The captain had after all ordered the two of them to get the Gaia open as quickly as possible.

That however certainly did not mean that he had to be overly cheerful, about them using the Impulse to carry out the task.

So while still sulking about that. He slowly turned his attention away from the Gaia and downwards towards the floor, where he pretty much immediately mutter out a few displeased curses, that actually made it sound like he was being treat completely unfair right now.

Yet while he was trying to figure out just how much this was truly bothering him. The only female pilot station on board the Minerva slowly moved her hand over and place it on his shoulder.

Which immediately made him turn his gaze back at her, where the first thing he noticed was the smile on her face.

"I don't seriously think you have anything to worry about Shinn. It's not like they are going to completely disassemble the Impulse, they are just going to borrow a single part from it, which I'm pretty certain they will put it back where it belongs once they are done!" She said in a loud tone, while taking a glance away from him and over at the mobile suit on the floor.

Hearing Luna tell him something he already knew. Shinn took a small step away from her.

"You can stop with the nice little pep talks Luna! I just don't like the idea of them messing around with the Impulse to save an enemy pilot. So until they actually start pulling things out of your machine don't talk to me about it. Now if you have nothing else to say I think I'll go down and get something to eat, I'm hungry!" He told her in a somewhat vicious tone, as he hurried turned around and began making his way over towards the exit of the hangar.

Seeing him disappear out of the hangar like that. And going over everything he had just said to her, the red haired teen narrowed both of her eyes a bit, as a small yet angry vein appeared on her forehead.

"Man! He can just be such a childish jerk at times. I was only trying to cheer him up!" She yelled loudly.

Just before she crossed both of her arms over her chest, in a displeased manner, while making the tough decision that this was going to be, the very last time she was ever going to talk to Shinn.

But even true she was deeply determined to keep this promise to herself right now, a small part of her had already realized that after a few hours or days. She would most likely be talking with him again.

And that thought alone was enough to make her even more angry at him. It had always bother her greatly that every time he made her mad, she would always forgive him so easily.

Yet this time however she was going to do her best, to give him the silence treatment for as long as possible.

If there was one thing she knew, then it was that Shinn definitely hated when he was getting ignored, when he was busy with his own childish complaining.

"I hope for his sake, that he has a sincere apology ready the next time I see him!" She mutter quietly to herself.

Just before she turned and began making her way over to the two former members of the Le Creuset team. That at this moment was currently busy discoursing what they where going to do, if they for some reason couldn't get Gaia gundam's cockpit open.

And it didn't take very long for her to join the conversation about the armless mobile suit.

000000

At the exact same time up on the bridge.

There was another conversation going between the captain and the second in command, about the recapture mobile suit.

"I do believe it's quite dangerous having that thing on board captain. Especially since the pilot haven't been restrain yet!" Arthur said. Not doing one thing to hide that he was slightly on edge, and that he was very uncomfortable about everything that was going on right now.

He just couldn't stop himself from thinking about the many Zaft soldiers that had been mercilessly slaughter. When the three gundam had first been stolen from Armory One.

Just thinking about it, was more then enough to make him feel somewhat sick. In his eyes it seriously would have been best if the Gaia had stayed outside, at least until they had been able to pull the pilot out of the machine.

That way they could have made absolutely certain, that the gundam wasn't a threat to any of them. Yet with all the troubles they where having getting the Gaia open, it could just be a matter of a little time.

Before the gundam would suddenly spring back to life and start attacking them again.

Which could definitely be quite a disaster if it happened in here. Even armless the black war machine shouldn't really that much trouble killing everybody down in the hangar, if there wasn't anybody around to stop it.

And that was why he thoroughly believed that they should hurry and get the Gaia gundam back outside again. If anything happened out there, it at least wouldn't result in a bunch of their own people getting either hurt or even killed.

Not really having a whole lot of trouble understanding why Arthur was so concerned about this. The brown haired woman began talking to him, in the most calm tone she could manage under the circumstance.

"Recapturing the Gaia is quite an achievement for all of us Arthur. Not that I don't agree with about the mobile suit still being dangerous. Yet I was hoping to get some useful information from pilot, which could be somewhat difficult to get if she is seriously hurt in there, that's why I do believe that it's best that we let the Gaia stay where it is for now!" She said, while thinking a few seconds about everything the Gaia had done.

She did however not do that for long, before she once again began talking to the grey haired man.

"And if the girl in there truly want to continue fighting us. She would most likely have done it immediately after she was brought on board, which is actually the reason why I do believe that Athrun is right about the pilot being unconscious right now!" She said loudly.

Just before she slowly turned her attention away from overly concerned man and over at Meyrin. Where she immediately asked the girl, how far along the mechanics was in the task of getting the Gaia's cockpit open.

Not really needing a whole lot of time to figure out the answer to the captain's question. Meyrin slowly turned her seat around and got eye contact with the only other woman present up there.

"Well according to the last report we receive from the hangar not long ago, the mechanics are still having a great deal of trouble getting the emergency release system to function as it's suppose. Yet it would seem that both Vino and Yolant are working quite hard on a solution. But it apparently is going to take a while before they are done!" The red haired girl explained.

Just as she once more turned her attention back towards the controls at her left side.

Nodding a single time in understanding to that. Talia let out a small breath as she looked back out of the window where the sun could be seeing slowly disappearing in the far distance.

"Please do make sure to keep me post about their process Meyrin. I want to be informed immediately after the pilot of the Gaia have been restrain!" She said, while looking out at the orange glowing sun, it truly was a magnificent sight no doubt about that.

Yet a minor part of her kinda wished that she could enjoy this view, without having to think about everything that was happening on the Minerva, at this very moment in time.

She might be doing quite a nice job at hiding her somewhat worrisome thoughts.

But deep inside she was just as concerned about the situation down in the hangar, as Arthur was.

Yet she was absolutely determined to make sure, that the rest of the crew gather up there, didn't realize just how much this was actually bothering her. Which was the reason why, she kept on staring out at the slowly descending sun.

Even when Arthur once more began telling her, just how unwise he found this whole situation.

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A small hour had gone by since the Gaia had first been brought on board the Minerva.

And even true things had been pretty tense, since the crew had discover that they couldn't open the mobile suit's cockpit.

Yet now that Yolant and Vino where almost done installing the emergency release system, they had borrow from one of the Impulse's Chest Flyers.

The atmosphere around the ship wasn't nearly as tense and panicky any more. Most of the crew had calm down quite a bit, seeing as the Gaia had yet to do anything that could even be consider hostile, it had pretty much been lying there quietly the entire time it had been on the ship.

That however did not mean, that the few people gather down in the hangar, had let their guard down completely. All of them where somewhat cautious about moving to close to the Gaia's feet, incase it would suddenly start kicking and moving around.

There wasn't one single person present, who had much interest in getting step on by the enormous war machines.

Yet while the two mechanics was busy working on top of the Gaia. Three of the Minerva's pilots was resting on a small crate, talking with each other about everything they had experienced since they had arrived at this abandoned base yesterday.

Luna just couldn't help but be somewhat curious about this place. Seeing as she had pretty much been stuck on the ship this whole time, which meant that she had yet to take a look around inside the creepy laboratory.

But after listening to some of the things Athrun and Nicol had told her about this place.

The excitement she had been feeling about taking a small look around the area had gone down quite a bit.

So if anybody asked her now, if she want to join them on a small trip around this sickening base. She would most definitely say no, she seriously did not want to see some of the things, the two former members of the Le Creuset team had said, they had found in there.

"So you are saying that they where using children as test subjects in there? That's totally disgusting!" She said loudly. While wondering if the people who had lead this place in the past, even had something that could be consider as a conscience.

Yet even if they did, she was pretty certain that it was completely stain by all the blood, they had spilled while being there. How the heck could those people live with themselves after doing something like this to so many children.

She might not have had the displeasure of seeing what was inside the base, which was something she was truly relieved about.

Yet she was honestly starting to regret quite a bit, that she had asked Athrun and Nicol to tell her about what they had seen inside this base. It truly was disturbing as hell.

And once she heard the answer to her last question. She hurried shook her head a few times, as she used her right hand to cover up her mouth, forcing back the food she had eaten not long ago.

"Please stop guys! I really don't want to hear another word about all the gross and disgusting things you guys found in there. So could we please talk about something else instead?" She almost begged the two other teenagers.

Just before she lift her hand and rubbed away the few drops of sweat gather on her forehead. But even after doing that, she still felt somewhat sweaty underneath her clothes.

Which of course meant, that there was an enormous part of the young woman. That just wanted to get out of there and go take a nice long shower.

But even true that would most definitely be wonderful right now. She just couldn't bring herself to leave, before she had seen the lunatic inside the Gaia. She had after all had fought the person in there more then just a few times.

So her deep curiosity simply prevent her from leaving the hangar.

Smiling slightly at Lunamaria's request to change the subject over to something else. The pilot of the yellow GOUF got a bit more comfortable where he was sitting on the crate.

"So what exactly would you like to talk about Luna?" Nicol asked in his usual friendly voice.

Thinking a second or two about that question. The female ZAKU pilot scratch her short red hair in a thoughtful manner, as she tried to figure out what else they could talk about.

But seeing as they had all been stuck, at this deeply disturbing base for quite a while now. She honestly had next to no idea about, what she and the two other pilots could discourse, that was at least a little bit interesting.

She was slightly tempted to ask Athrun about his feelings for Cagalli. But she knew that was a really bad idea, she truly didn't want to remind him too much about her blond haired rival.

Yet one single look over at him was more then enough to tell her. That he didn't need her for that, it was pretty obvious from his expression that he was badly listening to anything she and Nicol was saying.

He was simply so far away in his own thoughts right now, that he didn't even notice, that she was watching him so intently. And knowing that he wasn't in the mood to talk with her or anybody else at the moment, she once more turned her attention back towards Nicol.

"I really don't know what we should talk about Nicol. But if we just sit around here quietly without saying anything, there is a very high possibility that I might just end up falling asleep here, so why don't you tell me a few jokes or something like that!" The worn out red haired girl said.

Just before she slowly stretch both of her arms up over her head and let out a small yawn.

Seeing her look so tired, Nicol couldn't help but be slightly concerned about her. "If you are actually this exhaust Luna, why don't you go back to your room, and get some sleep? It's pretty obvious that you could really use it right now" he said in a somewhat serious tone, and with a worried look in both of his eyes.

He really didn't like seeing her like this, she almost looked ready to collapse at any second now.

Hearing him say that. and seeing the worried expression on his face. Lunamaria smile a bit at him, as she began talking in a out of focus voice.

"I'm not going anywhere before I see who is inside the Gaia. I might have found Heine a bit annoying at times, but that doesn't mean I wanted for him to be shoot down like he did. So there is no way I'm leaving this place, before I can see who it was that murder one of our friends!" She said.

Just as she turned and took a short glance up at the two mechanics on the gundam. Before she again looked back at her fellow pilot.

Nodding a few times in understanding to that. Nicol too looked up at their two friends. "How long will it take before you guys a done up there?" He asked.

Doing his best not to show, that he was just as physically exhaust as Lunamaria was. The last couple of days had seriously taken quite the toll on him, he couldn't even remember the last time, he had been able to get a good long night of sleep.

"A few more minutes Nicol, then we should be able to reveal who the pilot of the Gaia is!" Yolant yelled back down to the green haired GOUF pilot. Just as he once again turned his attention back to what he and Vino had been working so hard on the last half hour.

It might have been a piece of cake pulling this one part out of the Impulse's Chest Flyer.

But getting it adjust so it would work on the Gaia was a bit more difficult. Yet if everything work as it was suppose, it shouldn't be all that long now before they could finally see, who exactly the pilot of the stolen gundam was.

"Good work you two. I'll contact the bridge and tell the captain and the second in command that they can come down here. I'm certain that they too are curious about seeing who is inside the Gaia!" Nicol told the two mechanics.

Just as he slowly got up from his location on the crate, and began making his way over to one of the many monitors down there.

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It wasn't long after that before one of the doors down there flew open, and in stepped the captain follow shortly by Arthur and Shinn.

"I most admit I'm kinda surprise by the lack of people down here. I thought most of the crew was at least a bit interest in this, well it's not like I can really blame any of them. It has been a couple of hard days for all of us!" The captain said. While she and the two men was slowly approaching the crate, which the three mobile suit pilots was resting on.

Once over next to them. She again open her mouth and continued speaking.

"So it's definitely wise that they all take advantage of this small break to get some rest. We should follow their example, once the pilot of the Gaia has been restrained, we can always start questioning her tomorrow!" She said. Before she got comfortable beside Lunamaria on the metal crate, she frankly didn't want to stand up any more today then she had to.

Truth be told the only thing she want to do right now, was to crawl in to her bed and just rest her extremely sore legs for the rest of the night.

But before she could do that, she need to make absolutely certain that the girl inside the Gaia, didn't create anymore problems for them, then she already had.

There was just no way she could sleep calmly knowing that the girl in the Gaia was a danger for crew and her ship. Yet just as she got her mouth open and was about to ask the two young mechanics how much longer it would take before they where done.

Vino's extremely loud voice cut her off. "We got! We finally got! Hurry up here guys, I want to see who the hell is inside this machine!" He shout. Making his excited voice echoing loudly out through the pretty much empty hangar.

After that he kneel down and was now just wait for everybody else to get up there. He could just badly contain his deep curiosity about the Gaia's pilot.

Fortunately for him it didn't take many minutes before everybody else was up there too.

"Ok open it carefully, we don't know if she is armed in there. But if she does try something, make sure that you don't kill her, we want as much information from her as possible!" Talia said in a deep serious tone. Then took a brief glance around at everybody up there.

Just to make absolutely sure that none of them, looked like they where about ready to do something utterly foolish.

She was especially worried about Shinn's reaction to this, from what she knew the dark haired boy had been having a very close friendship with Heine. So there was just no telling what he was going to do once he saw the person the had murder the orange haired man.

But after watching him for a few seconds she let out a small sigh. As she again turned her attention back towards Yolant, that was kneeling by the cockpit, holding on to his gun.

"Open it carefully Yolant, then move away from there immediately after!" The woman order in a serious voice.

Just as she saw him nod a single time in understanding as he slowly pressed down on the button that made the cockpit fly open.

And it was only a brief moment later when all of them where able to see the person inside the Gaia. Yet much to their big relief, there was no kind of movement from the blond haired girl.

"Wow it's a shame she is an enemy, she is a real cutie!" Vino said out loud, without thinking it over even for a second.

Yet before either Talia or somebody else could say anything about his drooling over the enemy pilot.

The red haired ZAKU pilot hurried lift her hand over and gave him a hard smack at the back of his head, while telling him loudly to stop admiring the unconscious girl inside the Gaia.

"Ok, ok Luna there is no need to hit me like that" the young mechanics grumbled unhappily. Making sure to glare angrily at the female ZAKU pilot. As he rubbed the slightly sore spot, the violent red haired girl had hit not long ago.

Yet while this little display was happening.

Shinn was looking with wide eyes at the familiar person inside the Gaia. Of all the people he had expect and want to see in there, this was properly the very last one.

Why in the world did it have to be Stella that was the pilot of the Gaia. Why couldn't it have been somebody he didn't know and cared about, that had been using this mobile suit since it was stolen from Armory One.

But as he stood there trying to figure out some answers, to all the questions that was running through his head.

He was just barely listening to a single word of what the others was saying to each other.

And it was only when he heard Nicol ask the captain what they where suppose to do with her. That he finally snapped back out of the shock, he had been in since he had first seen her again.

So as the brown haired woman stood there trying to come up with some kind of answers.

The short temper boy hurried moved right past her, and over in front of the opened cockpit, where he immediately kneel down and reach out and softly caress the girl's right cheek.

"Stella why does it have to be you that was inside the Gaia?" He asked her loudly. Even true a small part of him did realize, that there was no way she could give him a response right now.

But just hearing him ask her that, was more then enough to make a shock look appear on everybody else's faces.

"Shinn, you are not telling us that you actually know this girl?" Talia asked in a tone, that made it pretty clear for everybody down there, that it would without a doubt be wise to give her some kind of reply.

It did however take almost a minute. Before the boy got his mouth to work again.

"Yes...yes...I...I...saved her from drowning a few weeks ago, and now I have to do something to make sure that she is all right. I wouldn't let anything happen to her!" He yelled, with a deeply determined look in his eyes.

Just before he gently pull her out of the cockpit, and began making his way over to the ladder.

Which he carefully descend down to the ground, still holding on to the blond haired girl, doing everything possible to make sure that he wouldn't drop her. And before any of the others had to opportunity to say anything to him.

The boy disappeared hastily out of the hangar clearly heading for the Minerva's sick bay. Apparently expecting that the doctor down there to actually treat the knock out girl.

But Talia knew, that there was no way he was going to look over an enemy pilot, without being directly told by her to do so.

"Seems like it's going to take quite a while yet before I can get some sleep. But the rest of you should go back to your rooms and get a little rest before tomorrow. I'll go after Shinn and talk with him about this, I don't really think it's a good idea for him, to have a crush on an enemy pilot" the tired woman said, a bit annoyed that she had to deal with something like this, so late in the evening.

She had kinda expect, that they could lock the girl up in one of the cells for the night, then have a long serious discussion with her tomorrow.

But as things looked right now. It truly did seem like it was going to take quite a while yet, before this day was going to be over.

So while trying her best to hide the deep exhaustion she was feeling at the moment. She she slowly crawled down the ladder and hurried rushed off in the exact same direction, the stubborn boy had disappeared in with the pilot of the Gaia.

Once out of sight. Luna slowly turned and looked back at the five men standing behind her.

"I kinda feel sorry for the captain right now. She actually looked a bit like she could sleep standing up!" The red haired teen said. While thinking about the completely exhaust look the captain had in both her eyes, before she had left the hangar.

Nodding slowly in agreement to that. Nicol smile a bit at Luna as he began talking in a somewhat reasonable tone.

"Yeah she seriously did look like she was ready to collapse any minute now. But we all know just how stubborn Shinn can be at times. So if he really does have crush on that girl, he would most likely yell and complain about it until something is done to help her!" The green haired man said. As he slowly reach up and rubbed his chin in a thoughtful manner.

He just didn't understand what Shinn saw in that girl. If one gave it just a little thought, it wasn't really all that hard to figure out that the Gaia's pilot had murder a great deal of loyal Zaft soldiers, including one of their fellow team mates and friend.

Yet once Shinn had laid eyes on the blond haired girl, it was almost like all the awful things she had done, had just disappeared from his mind. Like he was actually willing to forgive her for everything she had done.

"I just hope that the captain can talk some sense in to him, that girl is most definitely a very risky person to fall in-love with!" Nicol said in a hard voice. Just before he turned around and began making his way over to the ladder, with everybody else looking after him.

And once he was gone too.

It became Athrun's turn to say something about this whole matter.

"I totally agree with Nicol about this girl being a dangerous individual, but I quite seriously doubt it's going to be that easy talking Shinn out of the deep feelings he has for her. Emotions like that doesn't just disappear from one day to another" the blue haired man said. As he thought a brief second or two, about the gorgeous woman he was in-love with.

He did however not get long to do that. Before Arthur interrupted his slightly roaming thoughts. "Well to be completely honest, most of the things the two of you said does make a lot sense!" The man said, obviously still thinking quite hard about the two pilots words.

Yet after doing that for a few seconds. He again opened his mouth and once more continued with his little speech.

"And even true I really want to help the captain out with as much as I can. There isn't really a whole lot any of us can do about this matter, so seems like the only thing we can do now it's hope for the best and follow the captain's advise about getting some sleep!" He said. While looking at the rest of the people gather up there on the armless gundam, where he could easily tell that they all agreed with him.

So with nothing more to say each other.

It did not take long, before all of them where back down on the ground. Now making their way towards the exit of the hangar.

To be continued.

I'll see all of you in the next chapter which will be back on board the Archangel.


	35. Chapter 35

Chapter 35

While the last few days on the Minerva had been quite tough.

The atmosphere down on the Archangel was totally different. Everything was just so nice and peaceful, which needless to say was something the entire crew enjoyed greatly.

One of them that particularly liked being so far down in the ocean, was a certain pink haired teenage. Who at this very moment, was taking in the truly lovely view of all the life, that was going on just outside of the ship.

She especially loved looking at the more colourful, not to talk about bizarre fish out there, that was calmly swimming around the Archangel.

None of them realizing that their where being watched. They where simply far to busy searching the area for their next meal, to noticed the pink haired teen, who was trying hard to figure out, just where exactly a small stream of cute orange fish was going.

"I wonder what's it is like being out there? It truly does look incredibly peaceful" Lacus quietly said to herself, with a generally happy smile on her face.

Just as she slowly turned her curious gaze away from the many orange fish, and over at a stingray, which was calm making it's way past the bridge, with not one care in the world.

It truly was an impressive animal to look at.

And it was at times like these, that the young woman wished that she knew how to scuba dive. So she could actually try and swim around out there, together with the many interesting creatures.

Perhaps once the war was over and they got back home to Orb. She should consider asking Kira if he wanted to take diving training with her, that certainly could be a very entertaining thing for both of them to learn.

It would just be so utterly romantic, if they where able to be out there together with all of those beautiful fish surrounding them.

And the whole idea about experience something so absolutely wonderful, with the one she loved with all of her being, was pretty much all that was needed to make a deep far away expression, appear on her happy face.

Yet as she continued standing there daydreaming about all the things, she and her husband could see out there.

She did not notice the door to the bridge fly open.

And that the very person who was playing a huge part in her dreams was now making his way over towards her. And it was only when she felt two strong arms being gently wrapped around her slender body, that she finally realized that she wasn't alone up there any longer.

Yet even true his sudden presence surprised her slightly. It did not take long before she leaned back against him, truly enjoy the feeling of her husband holding her so close. It always made her feel so safe and relaxed.

"You do know, that I have been searching for you all over the ship, this was actually the last place I expect to find you" Kira whispered softly in to her ear, while taking in the lovely scent of her long pink hair.

But even true he could not deny, that he was greatly enjoying the fragrant of the strawberry scent shampoo she liked so much. There was a small part of him that was seriously wondering what was going on with her, this was far from the first time she had gone of somewhere on the ship to be on her own. And he knew that she only did that, when she had something on her mind.

And the whole thing with her obviously having a tough time telling him anything about what was bothering her. Had really served to make Kira worry about what was going what was going on. Which was actually one of the reason why, he had been wandering around all over the Archangel the last hour, searching for her.

So as much as he truly hated to ruin the romantic atmosphere between the two of them.

He just had to know what it was, that had been bothering her so much the last few days. If there really was something she was sad about, he wanted to do absolutely everything possible to help her out.

And with that in mind, he slowly moved his attention away from her soft hair and out at the view in front of them.

"Lacus what's going on? For some reason you have been so distance recently. I'm actually starting to worry that you are mad about something" he softly told her.

Just as he slowly turned his gaze away, from the almost breathtaking view, and down the gorgeous woman he was holding in his arms. Truly wondering what she had been thinking so hard about, when he had entered the room.

Hearing him say that, Lacus lift her head and looked back at him, where she could easily tell from his expression, that her weird behaving the last couple of days was bothering him quite a bit.

And seeing as she was far from angry at him. She slowly turned around in the secure embrace, and moved both of her arms up around his neck, now looking directly in to his deep purple eyes.

"I'm no mad at you Kira, or anybody else for that matter. I have just been having a lot of things on my mind that I needed a little peace and quiet to think about. Yet I truly am sorry, that I worried you so much" she said, with a deep caring smile on her face.

Before she leaned in and rest her head up against his shoulder sincerely loving being in his arms like this.

She did however not get long to really enjoy it. Before her husband once more brought the romantic mood to an end. By asking her what exactly it was, that she had been thinking so much about recently.

Feeling somewhat disappointed that their little moment couldn't last. Lacus snuggled a bit closer to him, where she let out a slightly displeased sigh, as she opened her mouth and began explaining to him what her distance behavior had been about.

"Well you see Kira. As much as I like being down here with you and everybody else, we will never be able to figure out what exactly the Chairman and Zaft are planing while we are hiding out down here. So I was thinking about going back out in to space" She said in a somewhat far away tone.

Just before taking a brief glance up in to his eyes, where she immediately notice the deep thoughtful look in them, which made it pretty clear that he was thinking quite hard, about what she had just said to him.

Yet once he moved his gaze away from the ceiling, and their eyes meet each other again. She slowly opened her mouth, and continued on with the explanation.

"Maybe by joining up with the Eternal. We can dig up some vital information about that man and what he is truly up to!" She said, while using a few short moments to go over some of the Chairman's and her impostor's speeches.

But even true they where quite different, every time they heard a new one.

It surely couldn't be denied, that all each had one certain thing in common. Which was always something about how much Zaft wanted to end the war and once more bring peace back to the would.

And as lovely as that truly did sounded. She was begin to doubt the Chairman's words more and more, every single time she heard him speak.

Yet as things where developing right now. She had very little to go on that could actually prove, what that the Chairman was really up to. Which was the reason why it had now become necessary for her, to return back to outer space.

Once back on board the Eternal, and so much closer to the Plants. It should at the very least be a little bit easier, finding some information about what Durandal's true intentions was with all of this.

She did however not get a whole lot of time to think about all the things she needed to do, once she and commander Waltfeld joined up with the Eternal again.

When she suddenly felt Kira tighten his grip on around her waist. And before she had anytime to react he once more pressed his face in to her pink hair, which meant that she could now feel his somewhat calm breath against her neck.

"Lacus, I would most definitely be lying to you, if I went and told you, that I thought it was a good idea for you to head back out there on your own. But if that's what you really want to do, I wouldn't try to stop you. But please promise me that you will be careful out there, if anything was to happen to you Lacus, I don't know what I would do!" He mumbled in to her ear, still holding on to her as tightly as before.

Hearing him say that to her. Lacus slowly shut her eyes, and snuggled just a bit closer to him.

"It's not like I'm going out there all on my own Kira, commander Waltfeld will be coming along too" The female Yamato said, while taking a few seconds to play and mess around with the hair at the back of her husband's neck.

She did however not do that for long. Before she once more began talking to him in the same calm tone as before.

"And it's not like we are actually going to try and sneak in to Aprilius. But with everything that's happening around the world. It's becoming more and more necessary for us to be near the Plants, and all of the places where Chairman Durandal use to work in the past" she explained.

Before moving her hands a bit higher. So she could better feel his thick brown hair, between her fingers.

Not really needing a whole lot of time, to think about her words.

Kira gave her neck a light peck, while he began telling the pink haired goddess his opinion about everything she had just said.

"I truly do understand what you are saying Lacus. But that does not mean I'm not concerned about this. Yet I know better then most people, that when you first make up your mind about something. There is nothing that can change it. So I'll do everything possible to make sure, that you get safely up there" he promised her, in a deeply determined tone.

Smiling slightly at those words. Lacus gave his neck a small kiss back.

"I'm so glad that you are always there to protect me Kira. It's always makes me feel so special when we are together" She told him in a soft voice, while enjoying the feeling of his hands moving slowly up and down her back.

Yet when his hand travel through her pink hair. She slowly open her eyes, and once more looked back at him, where she saw him smiling gently at her.

"Of course I'll protect you Lacus. Even if the two of us are so far apart, you can be absolutely certain, that I'm not going to waste anytime in rushing out there to save you. If you ever find yourself in any kind of danger!" He said, while the young couple rest their foreheads against each other's.

And it was only shortly after that, when Lacus whispered out a small thank you, and that she loved him.

"I love you too Lacus, I love you too" he mumbled back to her in low tone.

After that nothing else was said between them. As they stood there holding each other for a very long time.

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At the same time a very intensive battle was playing out down in the hangar, between four people that was glaring at each other every time they had the opportunity to do so.

Yet once the only girl in the party throw down her cards and yelled out royal straight flush.

The three males in the small group, immediately growled out a few displeased sounds, which made it pretty clear that they where far from happy about the resolute of this game.

"Damn, whoever taught you to play cards like this girl, should be thrown of a cleft somewhere!" The Desert Tiger said.

Slightly annoyed that a teenage girl, had such an easy time beating him and the rest of them in cards. Especially because it had taken him such a long time, to get really good at the game.

Yet whenever he, or anybody else for that matter was playing against Miriallia. She would always find some ingenious way, to fool them in to doing something totally stupid, and then win the game right after.

Which was to say it lightly irritating as hell.

If there was one thing he could honestly say that he didn't understand in this world. Then it was how such a nice girl as Miriallia, could be such a bad ass when it came to playing poker. He was almost completely sure that if she ever made the decision to pay a small visit to a casino somewhere, she would undoubtedly leave the place with a large sum of money.

Smiling slightly at the one eyed man.

Miriallia calmly started mixing up all the gather cards again, making absolutely certain that her almost perfect poker face didn't wither at all. Which of course served to make it extremely difficult to figure out just what exactly she was thinking about.

"I do believe that my father would be quite upset, should he ever hear that his life was in danger for teaching his lovely daughter how to play poker" the brown haired woman said.

Just as she reached down and picked up her own cards. After that she again smiled a bit a the Desert Tiger, while telling him in a friendly tone that it was now his turn to make a move.

Yet while Andrew Waltfeld was trying to make up his mind about what to do next.

Dearka Elsman was facing another problem entirely, whenever he saw his beautiful girlfriend in poker mood as he had named it. He just couldn't help but find her incredibly attractive and sexy.

Which was actually one of the reason why. He couldn't really concentrate on the game.

He was simply far to busy watching her instead of his cards, and that of course had resulted in that he had lost more then a few games. Not that he cared much about that, he truly did love seeing her act this way, it was always so damn entertaining.

Yet as he sat there admiring her.

The fourth person there, suddenly interrupted his thoughts about the woman he was in-love with. By loudly telling him, that it was now his turn to make a move in their little game.

And while Murdoch's interruption did honestly bother Dearka slightly. He still tore his gazes away from Miriallia. and downwards at his cards. Where he immediately noticed, that he had quite a nice hand.

Which meant that there was a small chance, that he could pull of a victory this time around.

So after looking his cards over for a few more seconds. He took a hold on one of the cards and throw it on the crate they where sitting on, then took another card in exchange. And when he saw that he now had three queens and two nines, he had a tough time hiding his grin.

If it was in anyway possible for him to win this time around.

He was going to do it no matter what it took. And with that in mind Dearka slowly lift his gaze away from the cards, and looked over at the chief engineer. Where he gave the large man a small nod, to show that he was done.

After that he once more turned his attention back, towards the five pieces of heavy paper in his hands.

Yet as he sat there dreaming about his tiny victory to come. He did not realize that Miriallia was watching him, and had already figured out that he had quite a good hand at the moment.

Which was most definitely something she was planing to use to her own advantage. She might love the sweet fool with all of her heart. But that did not mean, that she was going to permit him to win this game.

But as she was sitting there trying to come up with the best strategy, to beat her handsome boyfriend and the two other men. Mayu's loud voice suddenly interrupted her thoughts.

"Hey guys look what me and mom just made!" The eleven-year-old child shouted loudly. While showing of a nice looking chocolate cake, covered by thick layer of white glaze.

But even true it definitely couldn't be denied, that it truly did look extremely yummy. They all knew just how well Mayu function in a kitchen, and neither of them where really all that keen on getting food poison, at the moment.

So after taking a few uncertain glances around at each other.

They once more looked at the happy girl, who of course hadn't realized just how nervous they all where about tasting that thing. And it was only when she asked who of them wanted the first piece.

That Dearka finally asked the one question they all wanted answers to. "Emm...no offence Mayu...but...who exactly made that thing?" He asked, with a great deal of hesitation in his' voice.

And still with both of his' eyes turned towards the large brown cake.

He wanted to be completely sure. That there was nothing in it, that would give him and everybody else down there, the worlds biggest stomach ache or maybe even put them in an early grave.

Blinking a few times at that, Mayu slowly tilted her head a bit to the side. She frankly didn't understand why he was asking her that. And why everybody else she had meet on her way down here had ran off as quickly as possible.

But before she could start yelling at Dearka, she noticed that the three other people, was just as interested in getting a reply to the question, as the former Buster pilot was.

And even true she had little trouble recalling just how many times she had given them something that made them sick or throw up. She was still greatly displeased that they didn't trust her enough to at least try it out.

And a part of her, was actually a bit tempted to hurl the cake directly in to big brother Dearka's face. Seeing as he was the one who had made her angry in the first place, by asking that stupid question.

Yet just as she lift her hand and was about to follow through with the idea. Her mother's kind voice brought her to a hold, before the chocolate cake could leave her grasp.

"You guys don't have to worry! I made extra sure that she did everything like she was suppose to, so it should taste great. I for one do look forward to get a nice big piece of it!" The brown haired woman told them. As she slowly made her way over to them, also holding on to a cake of some kind. Yet even true none of them was able to tell, what kind of cake it was. It truly did look quite delicious.

But even after being told that the chocolate cake was completely safe to eat. Each of them where still a bit on edgy about accepting a piece.

They all knew from past experience, that even with Murrue keeping an eye on things. There was still a very high possibility, that Mayu had made some kind of critical error in the recipe, that could properly annihilate a minor army.

And it was only when Miriallia took notice of the slightly heart broken look Mayu had in each of her eyes. That she just could not keep herself from letting out a long reluctant sigh.

She knew pretty well, that Mayu didn't make food for them, because she actually wanted to make them sick. It was just her way of showing that she cared about all of them. And seriously not wanting to hurt Mayu's feelings anymore then they already had.

Miriallia slowly reach out and took a hold on the cutting knife that was laying beside the cake.

"I'll take a big piece too Mayu. And I'm certain that Dearka would also like very much to taste your cake" she said in a kind tone, while sending her boyfriend a small hard glare, that was more then enough to tell him, that it would be a wise move for him to try out the cake too.

So even true it was still somewhat unwillingly.

The former Zaft pilot told the small girl that he too would be having a piece of her cake. But since it hadn't been all that long since he had breakfast, he didn't want as big a piece as the captain and his girlfriend.

And it wasn't that long after that, before Dearka slowly moved a spoonful of cake up to his mouth. Yet since he had mentally prepared himself, the last few seconds to taste something truly bad.

He was pleasantly surprise that it actually was eatable and taste good on top of that.

"Hmm this is kinda tasty, not what I expected at all!" He said in loud tone.

While taking yet another bite of the brown cake, chewing it slowly to really enjoy and take in the taste of the delicious food. And even as he was doing that, he was already considering asking Mayu for another piece of her cake, when he was done with this one.

Just hearing him say that, was more then enough to make Mayu smile widely with pride.

As she slowly turned her head and took a look over at Miriallia. Where she immediately notice the other girl eating her piece with a large appetite. And with a slightly pleasant look in her eyes, as she continued taking one spoonful of the food after another.

Yet as she sat there watching her big sister figure eat her cake. She suddenly started thinking about the words big brother Dearka had said, only a few short seconds ago.

And knowing now that her big sister figure liked her cake, she once more turned her attention back towards Dearka, that by now was busy shoveling the food in to his mouth.

"What exactly did you mean about my cake not being what you expected big bro?" She asked in loud demanding voice. While making certain to give the Murasame pilot a highly displeased glare.

Slightly taken back at that question. Dearka quickly swallowed the last spoonful of cake, he had put in his mouth.

"Well I seriously think it's best we don't talk to much about that Mayu. You know as well as the rest of us, what happened the last time you baked a cake" he said in a quiet tone, while thinking briefly about the entire dish washing incident, and how nauseous and sick that had made him.

Yet not wanting to ruin his appetite now. He hastily shook those unpleasant thoughts away from his mind, and took yet another big bite of the cake, chewing it slowly to really saver it's chocolate like taste.

Hearing his reason for not wanting a piece of her cake at first. Mayu narrow her eyes a bit, in a somewhat angry manner. She couldn't even remember just how many times she had apologized for that little accident back then.

She did however not get the chance to tell him, how big a jerk he was, when her mother cut her off. "Please try and calm down Mayu, this was after all your little idea for us all to spend some time together. So please don't ruin that with an argument" she told her daughter in a caring voice, as she reached over and softly rubbed her hair, in a small attempt to get her to relax.

And once Murrue saw the girl send Dearka one last angry glare. Mayu quickly took the offer plate of strawberry cake from her mother's hand.

Then went over and sat down next to Miriallia, where she immediately took a large spoonful of the cake her mother had made for them. While she had been working so hard on her own cake.

Yet as they where all sitting there enjoying both the cake and each others company. Mayu noticed that there was somebody missing, which did kinda disappoint her a bit. She wanted all of them to be there together.

"By the way where is my two other big sisters and big brother Kira?" She asked a bit curious.

Just before she turned her head and took a small glance over at the Freedom to see if Kira was up there actually working on his' machine, while they where all having such a good time.

It was however pretty clear even from where they where sitting now, that there was nobody anywhere near the powerful mobile suit. Truth be told it actually seemed a tiny bit lonely standing over there, all by itself.

But even true Mayu did feel kinda sorry for the gundam.

It did not take much time, before she once more turned her attention back towards the people sitting around her. Still waiting somewhat impatiently for one of them to give her some sort reply.

Fortunately she did not have to wait long for that.

"Well I have no idea where Cagalli is. She has been acting a bit strange recently" the Desert Tiger said, from his procession on the metal crate. Truly wondering what had been bothering the blond haired girl, the last few days.

Yet while he was doing that. None of them noticed the quick look Miriallia and Dearka shared, they both of course had their suspicion, about what was going on with Cagalli.

But as concerned as they knew, the others was about Cagalli. It wasn't really their place to tell, what was really going on.

If the blond haired girl wanted the others to know about what was happening. She would most likely tell them herself, which she apparently didn't seem to be ready to do just yet.

And once both the Murasame pilot and Miriallia knew for sure, that none of them was going to say anything about Cagalli. They each continued eating their cake like they knew nothing about, what had been wrong with Cagalli the last couple of days.

Fortunately much to the young couple's relief. It did not take very long before the subject was turned away from Cagalli, and over at the two other people Mayu had asked about.

"But as for the whereabouts of our sweet little married couple. I do believe that they are of somewhere, having a serious discussion about what our next move should be!" Andy said, in a slightly far away tone.

As he once more tried to think of the best and most safe way, for him and Lacus to get back out in to space, and rendezvous with the Eternal and her crew.

He already had a bit of an idea. But it was kinda far out, not to mention extremely dangerous.

"Lacus did mention to me a few days ago, that we wouldn't ever be able to get any new information about Chairman Durandal, and what he is planing. As long as we stay hidden away down here" Andrew said quietly. Just as he took a big sip of his home-made coffee. Which lead him to discover, that there should have been just a few more coffee beans in this.

A mistake he was determined to straighten out, once he got back to his room.

Not having the slightest idea about what exactly the Desert Tiger was planing, was all that was need to make Murrue more then a bit worried. Ever since she had first met the man, she knew that he had the tendency to be quite reckless at times.

But with everybody else and especially Lacus safety involved. She was _almost_ sure that he wouldn't do anything to stupid.

He had after all told her once in the past. Just shortly after they had all moved in together, that he had promised Lacus' father that he would look after and protect her and Kira with his life.

And with everything he had done for them. Murrue knew without a doubt, that the man was determined to keep that promise no matter the cost.

But that certainly did not mean, that she could just shake away her concerns and pretend that everything was going to be all right. At least not without being told what precisely it was he was planing.

Yet before she could ask him about it. The other former Zaft soldier down there cut her off.

"Well seeing as it's no easy task, hiding who Lacus really is, how the heck are you going to get her of the planet, and back out in to space? With the war going on, you can be damn sure, that Zaft and the Earth Forces, are going to keep a close eye on every single spaceport on the planet!" Dearka said. Knowing that smuggling the pink haired girl off earth, could be an extremely hard task to accomplish.

She was after all quite easy to recognize, especially with the fake one running around stirring up all of her all fans. Which was in Dearka's eyes, yet another reason to dislike that damn copycat.

Smiling somewhat wickedly at that question. Andrew slowly poured the rest of coffee in to his mouth.

"Yeah that's something I have been thinking about, the last few days Elsman. Yet when I was watching the news yesterday, I realized that Durandal has given us the perfect opportunity to get Lacus and I back to the Eternal. Let just say that if the fake one, can so easily post as the real one. Then I'm sure that our Lacus wouldn't have that many problems, standing in for the fake!" He said, as the grin on his face grew just a little bigger.

Yet before any of the people down there, had the necessary time to come up with a comment or two about everything he had just told them. He once more continued talking in the same smart ass tone as before.

"So what we are going to do is actually quite simple, we are just going to borrow the fake once's shuttle when she is getting ready to leave. I seriously do believe that's the least she can do, for all the trouble she has cost us!" He said, while slowly leaning back against the larger crate behind him.

Not having that made problems, seeing the deeper logic in what the Desert Tiger had just said. Murrue reached up and rubbed her chin in a thoughtful manner.

"Well it does make a lot of sense Andy. But are you completely certain that's the only way you and Lacus can reach the Eternal, there is bound to be a lot of security around that fake Lacus!" Murrue said, while thinking about how many Zaft soldiers was actually going to be present when the fake Lacus was suppose to go back to the Plants. She was after all quite popular so there was bound to be a lot of people that wanted to see her off.

And while still trying to come up with a more safe way to get Lacus and Andrew Waltfeld of the planet.

The brown haired woman slowly moved her thoughtful gaze away from the floor, and back over at the Desert Tiger.

"Which is actually what really worries me, about this entire plan. If the two of you ends up getting caught while trying to steal a Zaft shuttle. Each of your life could be in serious danger" the brown haired woman said, while thinking briefly about the last assassination attempt on the pink haired woman.

That definitely had been, one of the more horrifying experience in her life. Especially because so many of the people she loved and cared about, had almost gotten kill in that attack.

And with her thoughts still somewhat occupied, with the attack that had made both herself and her little family homeless. She slowly opened her mouth and continued telling the man her concerns about this.

"Each and everyone of us here knows, just how utterly determined the Chairman is to get rid of Lacus. He has definitely shown all of us, that he is just about willing to do everything to accomplish that task. And I truly don't want anything to happen to either of you!" Murrue told the overly confident man.

Making absolute sure not to move her piercing gaze away from him, even for a second. She want to be completely certain, that he knew just how serious she was taking this entire affair.

It was after all Lacus and his life that was on the line.

Yet much to Murrue's annoyance that big grin on his face didn't decrease at all, as the one eyed man sat up straight again.

"I have already given that quite some thought captain Ramius, which is actually the reason why, I have made the decision to ask our two brave pilots to go along with us in their mobile suit's. If those two are close to the base, they can always come in there and bail us out!" The man said in a tone, which made it pretty obvious for all of them, that he had given this a lot of thoughts.

Still not totally happy with the Desert Tiger's plan. Murrue let out a light breath, there was just so many things that could go wrong with this idea. But after hearing just how much thought the former Zaft commander had put in to this idea.

She had little doubt, that there was any other way. That Lacus and him could get off earth, and meet up with all of their old comrades on board the Eternal.

And even true she could not deny that she really wanted to do something to help the two of them out. She knew that both of her hands was pretty much tied up at the moment.

It wasn't like they had the option to actually take the Archangel up there, and attack the base as a diversion. To make certain, that both Lacus and Andrew got safely away from the earth.

Yet as the brown haired woman was thinking about that. The former pilot of the Buster gundam suddenly interrupted her thoughts.

"Well if you ask me! I kinda doubt that Kira would just have stay down here, while Lacus is walking around inside an enemy base. And there is just no way in hell I'm sitting this one out. I would actually like to show Zaft a thing or two about what I think about them right now!" The blond haired man said.

Before he slowly reach over, and wrapped his right arm around Miriallia. Holding her as close as possible.

Hearing the boy say that. Andrew smile a bit at him. "I'm really grateful for the assistance Dearka, and I'm sure Lacus is too. But please do try and remember that our objective there isn't to fight Zaft, the only thing you and Kira needs to do is to cover us while we leave earth. After that it would properly be best that you guys retreat from the area" Andy said in a serious tone, that he knew the boy would listen to.

Not overly satisfied with Waltfeld telling him that. Dearka let out a small unhappy growl sound. "Ahh man! And here I was looking forward, to play kick the can with those mobile suits station at that space port. But like usual things never goes the way I want them!" The blond teenage complained. Actually making it sound a bit like the whole world was against him.

Giggling slightly at his childish behavior. Miriallia slowly moved up and gave his cheek a gentle kiss.

"You do realize, that you sound a lot like a little kid. When you are whining like that?" The girl asked him in a small teasing tone, while looking directly in to his purple eyes, waiting to see his reaction to what she had just told him.

And it did not take long before a fake gloomy expression appeared on his face. "And here I thought that was one of those things, you truly loved about me" he said. Now sounding like he wasn't all that far away from crying.

Unfortunately for him, the few people gather down there, knew him well enough not to fall for a trick like that.

And before he could come up with another method, to gain a little sympathy from the others.

His lovely girlfriend moved even closer to him, and gave the tip of his nose a light peck. "You don't have to worry about that. Of course I love you Dearka, no matter how crazy you are!" She told him softly. Before she snuggled a bit deeper in to their secure embrace, truly enjoying the feeling of his two strong arms, being wrapped around her waist.

The romantic moment did however not last for long, before Mayu brought it to an end.

"I too think that it's very important that big sister Lacus, and grandpa Waltfeld gets out in space safely. But this really is a depressing subject, so could we please talk about something else now?" The girl asked, while totally ignoring the slightly displeased glare the Desert Tiger was sending her.

It wasn't really a big secret around the Archangel. That both Andrew Waltfeld and Murdoch disliked it a lot, when she call them that.

Neither of them truly felt like they where old enough to be call grandpa just yet. They did however both realize that it was pretty much pointless, trying to convince her to stop calling them that.

When the girl had made the decision to give somebody one of her nicknames. It would most likely take a very cruel action to actually lose it again.

And as much as they truly disliked the whole grandpa title. Neither the engineer or the former Zaft commander wanted to hurt Mayu's feelings that badly, that it would make her sad and depressed enough to stop with the whole grandpa thing. And even true they had never actually talked with each other about it, both men thoroughly agreed on, to never do something that mean to the girl.

They did after all both care a great deal about her. It would just be nice, if she could find something else to call them, other then grandpa. But they apparently just had to live with that irritating title.

Yet while the two men was trying to get use to the thought, of being call grandpa for the rest of their lives.

Murrue found herself smiling slightly at the expression on her daughter's face. It was pretty obvious that she was still somewhat displeased with the subject, they had been discoursing almost the entire time, since they got down there.

"So sweetie what exactly would you like to talk about instead?" She asked in a caring tone, while she slowly reach over and gently brush away a few bangs of brown hair, that was hanging down in front of Mayu's eyes.

Only thinking briefly about a reply. The little girl hurried leaned backwards, to avoid her mother's hand.

Before it yet again could brush through her short uncombed hair, for some reason she had always found it somewhat annoying whenever her mother, would try to get her hair to sit just right.

"I really don't know what else we could talk about mom, just something that has nothing to do with the stupid war. Why don't you tell us a couple of jokes big brother Dearka? It's been awhile since you have last done that!" She said, with a large amount of hope and expectation, in her young voice.

Hearing her ask that.

Dearka narrowed both of his eyes a bit, as he got a light thoughtful expression on his face. "Well unfortunately I haven't been able to go anywhere recently to pick up some new jokes. But I did hear a few yesterday you might like!" He said in a kind voice. Just before he began telling her some of the jokes he had gotten from a few of the ship's mechanics.

But even as he was doing that. He made sure not to tell her any of the more naughty jokes he had.

If he did that, he was pretty certain, that both his lovely girlfriend and the captain would get extremely angry at him.

And the thought of having those two women mad at him, was more then enough to make a long cold shiver run down his spine. Which made him realize that he never wanted to experience something like that.

He could quite honestly say, that he did not feel like sleeping out in the Archangel's halls, the rest of the time they where down there.

So he was slightly cautious about the contents of whatever joke he told, the eleven-year-old girl.

There was no way he wanted to say something totally foolish. That would properly resolute in most of the women on board the Archangel, giving him a cold shoulder for an unknown length of time.

With him and Miriallia finally together again, after being apart for such a long time. There was just no way he could live with her not talking to him, for who knew how long.

So he just had to choose between his many jokes carefully, and not make anybody down there mad.

000000

At the same time elsewhere on the Archangel.

Cagalli was sitting all by herself, in the nice hot water down in the ship's hotspring.

But as relaxed and contented as she seemed right now. If anybody where to take a real good look at her, they would most likely instantly be able to tell, that she was having a lot of things on her mind at the moment.

She especially seemed to have a lot of thoughts about, what was going on down in her stomach. Which she had been rubbing gently, ever since she had first gotten in there.

It had been quite some time now, since she had first started feeling sick.

And even true a part of her, had kinda hoped that it would just disappear again after a short while. There was simply no way she could deny, that she was still feeling just as badly, as she had been the last couple of days.

But as much as her suspicious kept on growing. She still hadn't been able to convince herself to go down and get the doctor to run a check on her.

Simply put no matter what she did and how hard she tried. There was no way she could shake away her deep fear, about what he was going to tell her.

And if this truly was what all signs was pointing towards. She had no idea about what she was suppose to do with herself, as much as she hate to admit it. She simply wasn't ready to be a mother yet.

They where after all in the middle of a war, and she was only eighteen years old. Which in her eyes was far to young a age to be having a child, and with Athrun gone she kinda felt like she was all by herself in the world.

And that was properly the main reason why, she had kept her distance from the doctor's office. Ever since she had first started vomiting on daily base, the whole idea about being alone right now, was just to much for her to bear.

"Athrun you fool! I thought you where always going to be here to protect me" she mumbled sadly, while she slowly pulled her legs up, and wrapped both of her arms around them. Now resting her forehead against her knees.

Still thinking hard about the man she loved, and what she was going to tell him, if she really was pregnant. One thing was certain, he was definitely getting a nice round bump on his head once she saw him again.

It was after all always the men's fault, when something like this happened. That much she knew for sure from watching TV and reading books.

And it quite seriously didn't help much, that he wasn't there to support at a time like this, when she felt like she really needed it. That just served to piss her even more off about the whole thing.

"The two of us are definitely going to have a nice long talk, when I see you again Athrun!" She growled out.

Just before she slowly lower herself a bit farther down in to the steaming hot water, still holding on to her legs in a tight grip. As she continued trying to figure out what kind of greeting she should give her fiancée, the next time she saw him.

Yet as she was sitting there trying to make up her mind about that. Her stomach suddenly let out an extremely loud growling sound, that kinda made it obvious to her that she was yet again hungry.

"Damn it all! What the heck is it with this enormous appetite I have been having recently? It's only been an hour since I ate last. If I keep on stuffing my face like this, I'm surely going to get fat!" She complained loudly.

Not even realizing that if she really was pregnant there was just no way for her to avoid gaining a little weight. But like most other women, Cagalli was kinda sensitive about that subject.

But even as she kept on bitching about her increase appetite, and how nauseous she had been feeling the last few days. She still stood up in the hot water and began making her way over to the door, completely determined to get out of there as quickly as possible. So she could go get something to eat.

Preferably a nice big bowl of ice cream, for some reason she had been craving that quite a bit recently.

And it truly didn't matter all that much to her, that the chef told her just yesterday that they where running kind a low on that stuff.

She wanted ice cream, and if anybody tried to stop her, they where definitely going to get hurt in some manner. Especially if the individual happened to be of the male gender.

It might be a bit difficult to explain. But for some unknown reason a minor part of her, kinda felt like ripping an arm off some guy, and then beat him half to death with it right after.

But maybe that was just what she needed to cheer up a bit. She just hoped that whoever she decided to take her anger out on, wouldn't be missed to badly.

It wasn't like she wanted to hurt her fellow female kind in the process.

And with that in mind, she hurried kneel down and pick up her nice thick fluffy towel, which she immediately started using to dry away all of the water, covering most of her naked body.

000000

It was about ten minutes later when Cagalli arrived at the mess hall.

Where the first thing she saw was her brother and his wife playing chess with each other. But even as focused as each of them seemed to be on the game. She notice that they both had a difficult time keeping their eyes away from each other.

It was kinda like both of them where trying their hardest to get the image of one another as far in to their minds as they could.

And even true Cagalli could not deny, that she normally thought that the two of them where an adorable couple.

Yet this time around, the sight of them behaving like this kinda pissed her off even more then she already was.

It was just so completely unfair. That they had each other to be all cute and lovey-dovey with, while she had to handle this whole pregnancy mess on her own. And if it wasn't because she didn't want to make one of her best friends mad. She was slightly tempt to give her moron of a brother a good beating.

But as long as he hadn't done anything to really deserve it. She knew that Lacus would properly be on his side in this.

And that was definitely not something she could allow to happen.

It was after all only the male population in the world she was angry at right now. So she had to wait until he did something that would give her the opportunity to went out some of her anger on him.

Unfortunately with their attention turned towards the chess game and each other. There wasn't really many chances for her to catch her brother, in making some kind of mistake, that could be used as an excuse to hit him a few time.

He didn't even do anything, that would allow her to punch him even once. So after watching them a bit longer, her stomach again let out a growling sound.

"Damn it all! Why the heck can't I catch a break? I can't even find excuse to hit my own brother, when I really needed. I guess I'm just that unfortunate!" She mutter loudly.

Not realizing that both of them, could actually hear what she was saying. Not that she cared all that much about that anyway, the only thing that had her attention right now, was getting some ice cream and beating up some kind of guy that truly deserved it.

Yet as she stormed full speed past the married couple and over towards the kitchen door. She didn't notice that both Kira and Lacus was looking after her, until she disappeared from their sight.

"I wonder what pissed her off this time" Kira said, while looking back at his wife and scratching his hair a bit in a confused manner.

He honestly didn't understand what could have happened to make his sister this cranky, and why exactly he was the one who had to pay for it. He hadn't even talk to her once, the entire day. So to put it lightly he was quite a bit puzzled about what was going on.

Slightly surprise at hearing him say that. Lacus slowly turned her gaze away from the direction her sister-in-law had gone in, and back over at the one, she loved with all of her heart.

"That's a silly thing to say Kira, you should already have an idea about why she is acting like this. It's not really that unnatural for most pregnant women to be having a few mood swings!" Lacus said, while smiling gently at her husband, who was clearly thinking quite hard about what she had just told him.

Yet before he had the chance to get his mouth open and say something back. Cagalli's loud voice could clearly be heard from the kitchen.

"If Kira is doing something silly Lacus. I would be more then happy to help you put him in his places!" The blond girl offer loudly. Obviously hoping that she now had an opportunity to vent out some of her deep anger on the male gender.

But much to her big disappointment, and Kira's big relief. The pink haired woman of course declined the offer.

"I'm sorry Cagalli, but if my husband is doing something silly. It is properly best that I deal with it on my own!" Lacus called back to her sister-in-law.

Deeply hoping that the blond haired woman wouldn't do anything bad to Kira, when she and Mr Waltfeld left for the Eternal. She really did want her husband back in one piece, and not totally beaten up when she saw him again.

She did however not get much time to worry about that.

Before Cagalli once more stepped back out of the kitchen, and hurried made her way over to them, where she immediately dropped down beside Lacus, and took a huge spoonful of the ice cream she had found not long ago.

"Hmm that really hit the spot, I hope the cake I found is just as good!" She sigh happily with both of her eyes closed.

But even while doing that, she slowly reach over and picked up the delicious looking piece of chocolate cake. She had found only shortly before discovering the ice cream she so desperately wanted, hidden away at the very back of the freezer.

Apparently the head chef, had thought that the ice cream would be safe from her all the way back there. But she had definitely proven him wrong, it was actually a bit of a shame that he wasn't there, so she could rub it in his face.

But that was just something she had to do later, and with that decision made. She once more turned her attention back towards the married couple.

"Well if there ever comes a time, you need my help to teach Kira a lesson, Lacus. You just say my name and I'll be right there" she promised, while giving him a small wicked glare. As she made a light cracking sound with her right fist, which made it clear for both of them that she was actually quite serious about her little promise to Lacus.

It especially made Kira worried, the way she kept on glaring at him.

"You do know sis. I haven't really done anything, that justify you hitting me" he said, in a small attempt to defend himself, from the truly evil creature sitting just across from him. It did however not do him all that much good.

She just tilted her head a bit to the side. And gave him a sweet yet devilish smile, that was properly enough to make just about everybody, shiver all over.

"I know that little bro. But with Athrun gone, there isn't really all that many people around. I feel like I can kick around as I please!" She said. Actually succeeding in making it sound like it was perfectly normal, to beat up innocent people who had done nothing wrong.

And knowing how short temper his sister was under normal circumstance. Kira had very little doubt about the sincerity in her words.

And one single look at her grumpy face, was all he need to know, that she was more then ready to beat up both him and everybody else. That found someway to get on her nerves.

Fortunately for him, he had never been nearly as good at stepping on her toes as Dearka was, or Mu had been.

Yet now that he was actually giving it some thought. He seriously hoped that the former pilot of the Buster gundam wouldn't be crazy enough to begin calling her chubby, once the pregnancy really started to show.

He frankly didn't want to be at the receiving end of her fist. If Dearka really did do something that foolish and suicidal. It would most definitely be an extremely painful way to leave this world.

And the idea about what she would do, actually made a few drops of sweat run down his forehead, as he thoroughly wonder just what kind of child it would be, with Cagalli and Athrun raising it.

But just as he opened his mouth was about to mutter out poor kid. His loving wife gave him a hard kick underneath the table, which immediately made him realize just what kind of mistake he had been about to make.

If he actually did say something like that, he was pretty certain that not even Lacus, would be able to save him from his sister's wrath. She was after all in a bad mood already.

Which kinda made him hope she wouldn't be this cranky, at just about every single male in the world until the baby was born.

If she actually was going to behaving in this manner thought the whole pregnancy.

She was going to be impossible to be near, without having to fear saying something or doing something, that would result in getting once's ass kicked in some totally inhuman fashion. That would most likely having one wish for an early death, instead of the torture his sister would put one through.

"Ahhh man this really is going to be terrible, maybe I should just go out in to space with Lacus" he whispered quietly to himself, while taking a small glance over at his gorgeous wife. That much to his relief was busy explaining to Cagalli what exactly their next move was going to be.

Which meant that Cagalli didn't have the time to keep glaring at him, with all of her attention turned fully towards Lacus, and all of the things she was telling her.

"Athrun wherever you are, I really wish you knew, what kind of gruesome nightmare, you are going to put all of us through" he mumbled a tiny bit louder, then he had originally intent.

As he once more looked over at the now even more short fused woman, while wondering slightly what his best friend was doing at this exact moment in time.

He did however not get a whole lot of time to wonder about that. Before his overly cheerful sister, interrupted his thoughts. "What was that about Athrun, Kira? You do realize, that I have been missing him a lot, these last few days!" She asked loudly.

Making absolute sure, not to take her almost thoroughly piercing gaze away from her brother. Now again hoping that he would say something stupid.

But unfortunately, she did not get an opportunity to hit him this time either.

And it was starting to become more and more obvious to her, that he was being somewhat careful about everything he said to her, which did actually annoy her a bit.

"I know that you miss him sis, believe me we all do. I just hope, that we can find someway to convince him, to come back to all of us. Before anything can happen to him, I would be lying if I said, that I'm not a bit concerned about him working for the Chairman" he said in a caring tone. As he slowly reached over and wrapped his fingers around Cagalli's hand, which he immediately gave a small gentle squeeze.

Feeling him do that, and thinking about his words. Some of the deep anger did leave, the blond haired woman.

"Yeah that's something. I have been thinking a lot about too, bro. But maybe if we are lucky he will listen to reason, the next time we meet up with him" she said. Just before she started daydreaming about the man she was so deeply in-love with.

Seeing her so far away in her own thoughts. Both Lacus and Kira smiled a bit, as they slowly turned their gaze away from the now happy looking blond girl, and over at each other.

"So what now dear? Do you want to continued with our game, or do you want to do something else instead?" Kira asked, as he carefully pull his hand away from his sister's tight grasp, doing his best not to disturb her while she was so busy thinking and dreaming about Athrun.

Hearing him ask that. Lacus took another glance over at her sister-in-law.

Where she almost immediately realized, that she was now softly humming her favorite song, and knowing that she was finally happy again. Made the smile Lacus had on her face grew a little bigger.

"I think we should just keep on playing Kira, it would be pretty mean of us if we just leave without her realizing it. She truly does seem, to have a lot on her mind right now" Lacus said. Then reached out and moved one of her rooks a few fields up on the chess board, after that she once more got eye contact with Kira, where she gave him a small yet daring look.

Nodding a few times in agreement to her words and seeing the look she had in her eyes.

Kira hurried reach out and made his move, which of course meant that it did not take long, before the young couple's small battle continued on the chess board.

To be continued.


	36. Chapter 36

I sorry for the long wait guys. I was quite busy the last month, both with vacation and being sick.

But I should be back on track now. So here is the next chapter, don't forget to review now.

Chapter 36

It was in the middle of the afternoon.

Not all that far away, from the very space port, where the fake Lacus was suppose to leave from, in just a few short hours.

And having already been told just how many newer model Zaft mobile suits that was assemble at this base right now. The Freedom gundam, and a single Murasame that was hastily approaching the area, somewhat cautiously.

They did not want to be detected just yet, which of course meant, that both of the mobile suits, was flying almost down by the ground, to avoid getting pick up by the base's radar.

If somebody there, actually realized that they where out there. It surely wouldn't take much time, before the thick well grown forest they where presently making their way over, would be swarming with more then just a few insects.

And if they actually got in to a battle now. It was very unlikely, that the fake Lacus would be allowed anywhere near the base.

After all the information Miriallia had gather about her, the last few weeks

They knew that she was quite well defend, by a blond angry looking woman. That actually seemed about ready to get in to a fight, with just about anybody that got to close to the copycat.

Apparently the Chairman was quite determined, to make sure that the girl was kept safe from any kind of danger. Even if she was just a copy.

So if they did something stupid now. It would most definitely be all that much harder getting their hands on that shuttle.

And even with all the thought they had put in to it, they still hadn't been able to come up with another way, to get the real Lacus and Andrew Waltfeld out in to space and the Eternal.

Yet as they continued onward over the beautiful green landscape. The Desert Tiger suddenly brought the long deep silence to a hold.

"Ok then that's far enough, if we go any further now, Zaft will surely discover us. So if you would so kindly bring us down in the clearing just up ahead, and please do try and not to step on the two men waiting for us there, they are after all here to help us, make this little magic thick possible" he said. Now really looking forward to get out of this machine, so he could finally stretch his aching limbs.

One thing was sure a Murasame was definitely not made for two people, which meant he had been pretty wedged in there while Dearka was piloting the blue mobile suit.

But it was not like he had any other options, there was just no way he could have taken his own Murasame there. If he did that they where pretty much forced to leave it behind in the woods.

And if Zaft actually found it hidden away out there, chances was that they could use the data inside it, to find the Archangel's location, and that was the reason why he had been forced to do this journey with Dearka.

Yet if anybody asked him, it would have been more logical that he had gone with Kira in the Freedom. The gundam's cockpit was after all a tiny bit more roomy then a standard Murasame's.

But when he had noticed just how utterly clinging the married couple had been, shortly before they where ready to launch from the white space ship.

He had instantly made the decision, to bear the unpleasantness. and travel in the Murasame. So the two of them could have just a little more time together, before he and Lacus left for space.

And seeing as the two of them had yet to try and be apart for such a long time.

He knew that it had to be very difficult for the both of them. As far as he knew the only time they had away from each other for a long period of time, was when Kira had been shoot down by Athrun.

But at least this time around. Lacus wouldn't have to go through the deep sadness she had been experienced, when she thought Kira had been killed.

They each knew that the person they loved was out there, and that they would surely be reunited again.

Yet as he was thinking about that, the other person inside the Murasame, interrupted his wandering thoughts about the young couple.

"Ahhh man! I seriously need to get out of here, I'm truly starting to get a good inside look on, how a can of sardines are feeling!" The other former Zaft pilot, complained unhappily.

Just before he transformed the blue war machine over in to it's mobile suit mode, and got ready to touchdown a couple of feet away the small black limousine, that he could be seen waiting for them, at the opening of the clearing.

And once they where securely down on the ground. Dearka immediately reached out and got the cockpit open.

After doing that he turned his head and glared slightly at the man sitting to the left of him.

"I know that it's pretty much a mute point saying this now Waltfeld. But the next time you arranges a meeting of with some of our buddies, could you please do it a bit closer to the Archangel, miss Erica obviously did not design this machine with two passages in mind. I guess that's another thing I have to talk with her about. Like my idea for an Orb water type mobile suit!" Dearka said loudly.

Just as he slowly began lowing himself to the ground, still thinking about his idea for Orb's newest mobile suit.

Ever since he and Kira had been having their small discussion, about Orb having a mobile suit, that could function under water. He hadn't been able to shake the idea out of his mind.

And he was completely and utterly determined, to at the very least have a talk with the female scientist about it. Once he and the others got back home to Orb.

When one thought about how many different kind of water mobile suits Zaft actually had. It made little sense, that Orb didn't have something that could go up against those types of machine.

Especially the new once they had seen, when their home had been reduced to a pile of rubble, had been quite destructive and powerful. And he most definitely didn't want to go up against such a machine in a old M1 Astray.

And he was pretty certain, that most other Orb pilots would feel the same way.

And it frankly didn't take the worlds biggest genius to see.

That having a water type mobile suit of some kind, would be extremely useful for an island nation like Orb. And he was absolutely certain that the brown haired scientist would be more then able to see, the logic in his words.

He did however not get all that long to think about that. Before one of the men call out to him.

"Yo guys, it's about time you show up. What the heck took you so long? We where starting to think it would be night before you would get here!" The man standing to the right said, he had dark brown hair and was dress in a blue chauffeur outfit, and a pair of expensive looking sunglasses.

And one small look at him, was pretty much all that was needed, to make to clear that he was the one who had driven the car.

The other one however was a bit more muscular, and he was dress in a black suit that did an excellent job of hiding how strong he really was, he too had on a pair of sunglasses, they one the other hand did not look nearly as expensive as the driver's.

"Yeah Waltfeld you told us to be here at precisely at eleven o'clock and then you are ten minus late!" He said, with a small grin on his face that made it kinda obvious that he was just joking around.

Hearing that Andy smiled a bit, as he slowly stretch both of his arms up over his head.

"Hah...hah! Sorry about that Daisuke, we had to travel a bit cautious when we got in over land!" The one eyed man explained, while he turned and took a look over at the Freedom, there was no sign yet, that the young couple was going to get out of the gundam anytime soon.

Not that he blame them. He knew they would need some time to say goodbye each other.

That was actually one of the reasons why, he had arranges for them to get there two hours before the fake Lacus was suppose to arrive at the Zaft space port, which wasn't really that far away from their location.

And with that in mind. He once more turned his attention back towards the three men, where he noticed that Kazuma was busy talking with Dearka about the unique coloured Murasame.

Apparently both of the young men liked the mobile suit with this colour scheme. But after talking a little back and forth, Kazuma told the other Murasame piloted that he preferred his own machine in the light green colour it had.

Smiling a bit at how quick the two of them where becoming friends. Andy looked over at Daisuke where he immediately asked the other man, if he had brought what he had asked him.

"Of course I have, it's in the paper bag over in the car" the large man said.

Before he reached down in to his pocket, and pull out a pack of smokes, then placed one of them in his mouth and lit it a second later with a nice look lighter, that he had also been carrying in his pocket.

After that he leant up against the car where he took a small inhale of the unhealthy thing now hanging from his mouth.

Seeing him do that, and knowing that he wasn't the most talkative person in the world. Andy raised his right eyebrow a bit.

"You shouldn't smoke Daisuke, that's a very bad habit!" He said. Before he turned and began making his way over to the car, hoping to find everything he had asked the two men to bring along with them there.

He did however not get far, before Daisuke had something to say back, about his little comment. "Yeah right Andrew, like drinking coffee twenty-four-seven is much better!" He said, while taking another long inhale from his cigarette.

Hearing that Andrew stopped, and again looked back at his friend. "Ok, there is no need to get angry now, I was just trying to help you out!" He said, with a big grin on his face, that pretty much showed that he was joking around right now.

"Well if my wife can't get me to quite, then you wouldn't have much luck convince me to stop either!" The man said in a loud grumpy tone, that made it pretty clear to the Desert Tiger, that he really didn't want to discourse, his highly unhealthy habit more then they already had.

And realizing that, Andy once more continued over towards the black car.

000000

At the exact same time up in the Freedom.

Kira slowly pull away from the deep passion kiss, he and Lacus had just been sharing almost ever since he had gotten his helmet off.

And when they where just a few centimeters apart. He used a few seconds to watch her lovely blue eyes.

Before he slowly reached up, and gently ran two fingers down over her left cheek, while thinking hard about how in the world he had been lucky enough to meet and actually marry such a kind and beautiful person as Lacus.

And with everything the two of them had gone through together, ever since he had first found her life pod, floating around near the ruins of Junius Seven. He was even more determined now, to do everything humanly possible to protect her.

Even if it actually meant that he had to fight the whole Zaft army, completely on his own.

If anybody wanted to hurt his wife, they definitely had to go through him, and the Freedom first. And that pledge especially went for the Chairman, there was no way he would allow that man a second chance to hurt the woman he loved with all of his heart.

Feeling his strong yet gentle hand continuously caressing her face, in such a sweet and caring manner, a soft red blush appeared on both of Lacus' cheeks.

Just before she slowly, lifted her slightly embarrassed gaze, and looked right back at her husband's handsome face, wondering slightly, what he was be thinking about at this very moment in time.

But before she could ask him about it. He slowly moved forward and once more brought their lips together.

And even true Lacus couldn't deny, that this second kiss did take her a bit by surprise. It did not take very long, before she let out a long deep pleasure fill moan, just as she began kissing him back.

Which of course resulted in, that only took a few brief seconds. Before their tongues was softly doing battle with each other in a sweet passionate dance.

It was almost like the young married couple, was doing everything they could think of in the heat of the moment, to show one another, just how deep the feelings they had for each other truly was. And how much they where actually going to miss being together, once Lacus left to join up with the Eternal.

Not that any of them gave it much thought right now, they where simply far to busy with kissing and making out with the one they loved, to give anything else much of their attention. They could properly have been attacked by an entire army of mobile suits, and none of them would even have noticed it.

The only thing they both cared about right now, was each other.

Unfortunately as much as they would have liked to continue exploring each other's tonsils a bit longer, they came to a point when they just had to break the extremely passionate kiss, and get a little air back down in to their lungs.

But even as they both sat there breathing somewhat hard, their eyes still didn't wander away from each other even for a second.

And once Kira slowly moved in, and gently rest his forehead against her's. He finally opened his mouth, and broke the deep silence that had been between them, since he got the Freedom down on the ground.

"I'm still quite worried about all of this Lacus. I really want to go along with you, out there" he told her in a soft tone, and with a deep concerned look in both of his purple eyes.

Seeing that and hearing his words, made Lacus give him a small grateful smile.

"I would love for you to come with me out there Kira. But you have to stay behind and protect Cagalli, Murrue and everybody else on the Archangel. I know that Dearka is a very good pilot. But if something bad happens I really don't think he will be able to defend the Archangel all on his own. So you need to stay here Kira and help him do that" the pink haired woman said, in a gentle voice, which she knew from past experience that Kira would without a doubt listen to.

But even true her words truly did make a lot of sense to him, it was still not enough, to make him stop worrying about all of this.

But before he could think of something to say back.

The beautiful pink haired woman moved her arms slightly high, so they where now wrapped softly around his neck.

"And you know as well as I Kira, that if Cagalli is pregnant, you will properly be the only one beside Athrun that can keep her out of the Duel Rouge. You know how stubborn she can be at times, especially if Orb is involve. But if she actually ends up losing the baby from piloting that gundam. I don't think she will ever be able to forgive herself" Lacus said seriously.

Not doing a single thing to hide, that she was quite concerned about, what side effects piloting a mobile suit could have on a unborn infant.

Hearing his wife say that. Kira let out a small displeased grunt. "You do realize Lacus, that was a bit of a dirty trick. If you hadn't brought up Cagalli and the baby, I would definitely have left earth with you and Mr Waltfeld!" He said.

Still not totally please with the idea of her going out there without him. But he did of course realize that there was a lot of other people on the Archangel he needed to protect.

Smiling somewhat innocently at that. Lacus hurried moved in and gave him a brief kiss on his lips.

"Yeah, I know that Kira. But it is necessary that you are with the Archangel. So you can keep Cagalli out of trouble, at least until we can figure out a way, to convince Athrun to come back to us. Then he can be the one to deal with it, afterwards. He did after all play a major part in making the baby in the first places!" She said, while giving her husband a small naughty smile.

Which she of course realized would bug him a bit. He still wasn't entirely satisfied with the idea of his best friend, knocking up his sister. And when Laucs noticed him get a slightly displeased look, in both of his eyes.

She just couldn't help but let out a light giggle. "You are always so cute and attractive, when you are acting like the big and stronger brother who wants to protect his sister no matter what, it almost make me jealous" she teased softly. Hugging the one she loved even tighter, and slowly rubbing her nose up against his left cheek, in a small attempt to tickle him there a bit.

Not that she had much luck with that, and when Kira swiftly caught her lips when they got dangerously close, she soon got something else to think about entirely.

Like the small yet passionate kiss the two of them where now sharing.

She did however not get long to enjoy it before Kira backed away again. "You have nothing to be jealous of sweetheart, you do know I love you more then anything else in this world! But you are right I want to protect Cagalli, with her father getting kill in the last war. I do not want her to lose the baby in this one" he said in a loud utterly determined tone.

Hearing that, Lacus again began rubbing her nose against his cheek, in the same sweet and loving manner as before. "I'm happy to hear that Kira. You just make sure to do your best to look after everybody down there, and please be careful I do not want anything to happen to you!" She said, while gentle giving his cheek the usual good luck kiss, she would always give him before he went out in to battle.

After that, before Kira even had the chance to come up with some sort of reply to her words.

The pink haired girl hurried reached over, and pressed down on the very button that got the Freedom's cockpit open. Once that was done, she again looked back at her husband.

"We better hurry and get down to the ground. I'm certain that Mr Waltfeld and the others are getting somewhat impatient waiting for us, we have been up here a half hour now. And we do need to arrive at the space port, before my impostor gets there" she told him. As she saw Kira nod a few times in agreement.

So with nothing more to say to each other.

The young couple instantly began making their way down to the ground, where they could see everybody else was waiting for them.

000000

It was about five minutes later.

Kira and Lacus had just said hello to the two men, that was going to help them out infiltrating the space port.

"So now that we are all here, do you mind telling us just how we are going to pull this of Waltfeld?" Dearka asked. Curious about what the Desert Tiger was thinking about, and how exactly Kazuma and Daisuke was fitting in to this little scheme.

Smiling a bit at that. Andy reached in to the car and pick up a grey wig and a pair of sunglasses in the same colour, that went really well, with the ugly grey suit he was now wearing.

And once he was done putting that on.

He slowly turned around, and looked back at the people standing behind him, still with that big smile on his face, which almost instantly disappeared once both Dearka and Kazuma began laughing loudly, at the sight of him in that disguise.

"Holy crap Waltfeld! Who the heck are you trying to impressive with that getup, you look completely ridiculous!" Kazuma yelled out.

While holding on to his stomach in a somewhat desperate attempt, to at least try and keep a little control over his loud laughter. That could properly be heard all over the forest by now.

Yet when he said those things, to the one eyed man. The former pilot of the Buster gundam began laughing even louder.

Even Kira and Lacus couldn't help but let out a few light chuckles, at seeing the Desert Tiger dressed like that.

The only person there beside Andy, that didn't show some kind of amusement over this, was Daisuke.

He just kept standing there, leaning up against one of the many trees in the area, smoking yet another one of his cigarettes. Which he had pull out of his pocket only a few seconds ago.

But if one, where to take a closer look at him, they could see a small hint of a smile on his face. As he tried to figure out the reason why he hadn't thought about bring a camera with him there.

Having a good picture of his friend in that outfit, could definitely have won him and their others buddies more then a few beers. The next time they went out drinking.

It really would have been the most perfect blackmail material, he could have gotten his hands on for a very long time. Unfortunately it was only now that he saw Andy in that costume, that he realized his minor mistake.

But it wasn't like there was a whole lot that could be done about it now, it was not like he could just call his wife and ask her, if she had anything against, coming all the way out there with his camera.

If he actually did call her now, to ask her something crazy like that. He was pretty sure, that the only answer he would end up getting from her, was an extremely loud no.

And even if he did somehow convince her, to actually do it.

He knew that it would properly take over an hour, for her to drive all the way out there, depending on how bad the traffic was in the city right now.

Yet when he thought about that, he realized that it was about time they got a move on. If they stayed there much longer, there was a very high risk that they could end up meeting the fake Lacus Clyne, once they finally got to the space port.

And with that in mind, he instantly made his way over to the two Murasame pilots, where he didn't hesitate even a second, in giving both of them a hard knock on the head.

"Now be quiet you two! I too think Andrew looks ridiculous in that outfit. But time is running short, so shut your trap for a few seconds and let Mr looking absolutely ridiculous, tell his plan for entering the space port!" Daisuke said loudly.

While glancing over at the Desert Tiger. Where he could easily tell from his expression, that he wasn't totally happy with the teenages reaction to his costume.

But Andrew of course know that now was not the best time for him to be bellyaching about that. He could always do that once they got out to the Eternal.

So once the one eyed man was sure, that both Dearka and Kazuma, where done with their little outbreak of feelings.

He let out a short breath, before he began explaining what was going to happen. "All right then, here is what we are going to do. Kazuma here will be responsible for driving the rest of us to the space port, but it will also be his job to signal Kira and Dearka when the shuttle is about to take off. That way we can be sure, that you can get there in time to help us out!" He said, while looking over at the two pilots.

Where he saw both of them nodding slowly in understanding. After that he once more continued on with the explanation.

"As for our buddy Daisuke over there! He will be function as Lacus' bodyguard in this little scheme. Seeing as he got the black belt in karate, and is quite well trained in some other martial art things!" Andy said, still talking in the same loud voice as before.

While not doing anything to hide, that he quite frankly couldn't remember what belt colour, his friend had in the other martial arts, he had been trained in.

Yet when he noticed Daisuke rolling his eyes a single time, over his bad memory. He once more began telling the teenages ,what exactly the chain smoker's part was going to be in all of this.

"And with him so damn good at beating up people, he will of course be coming with Lacus and me on board the shuttle. So he can help take care of whoever is going to try and stop us once we get that far!" Andy said, while slowly moving his one eye over the four teenages, to make absolutely certain, that they all understood what he had just told them.

Yet when he saw the somewhat uncertain look Kira had on his face, he turned his head a bit to the side. "What's up kid? You seem a bit nervous over there, like you don't believe in my ingenious plan!" The man asked.

Hearing that. Kira let out a deep sigh, as he turned his gaze away from the man, and down at the ground.

"It's not like, I want to criticize your plan Mr Waltfeld! But I kinda wish that I could do more to help out with all of this. I'm not really keen on the idea of sitting out in the woods doing nothing, while my wife is in danger!" He said, with a great deal of seriousness in his voice, that pretty much show all of them how bad he was feeling about this.

Yet before Andrew could say anything to the young man.

Lacus slowly stepped over in front of her husband, where she gently moved both of her arms up around his neck, instantly making him look away from the ground and up at her.

"I'm sure that you have nothing to worry about Kira, everything seems well thought out, even down to the smallest detail. So please do put a little trust in Mr Waltfeld and Mr Daisuke ok?" She asked in a sweet tone.

Just before she felt him move both of his arms up and slowly wrap them around her slender waist, embracing her as tightly as possible. Not caring one bit about the four men watching them right now. Yet even as Kira stood there holding her, he slowly nodded yes to her question.

"Believe me Lacus. I do trust both of them! But with the last assassination attempt on you, I just can't help but be a little worried about your safety, but I will properly feel much better about all of this, once I know that you are safely out there with the Eternal!" He told her, while using the opportunity to take in the lovely scent of her hair, which he knew that he was going to miss greatly, once she was gone.

He did however not get long to really enjoy it. Before somebody firmly placed a hand on his left shoulder, and when he slowly turned and took a small glance behind him, he saw the Desert Tiger give him a big confident smile.

"Listen here kid, I know how much this bugs you! But I promise you, I will guard the songster with everything I got. And I'm pretty sure that our buddy Daisuke over there will do the same. So you just concentrate on protecting the Archangel, and your crazy sister" He loudly promised the boy. Sounding like this whole thing wasn't going to be hard at all.

Looking a bit at the man, Kira smile a bit. "Ok thank you Andy, please do look after her, for me?" He said, in a grateful tone.

Just before a soft warm hand was placed on his cheek, where it gently draw his attention away from the Desert Tiger. And back at the incredibly gorgeous woman in his arms.

And it was only shortly after that when the two of them share one more passionate kiss. It did however not last for very long.

Before the pink haired girl slowly moved away from her husband. And took one last look in to the two deep purple orbs, she had come to love so much over the last two years.

"I'll see you and everybody else, once we get back down here Kira. So please try not to do anything to reckless, while I'm gone" she said. Using the same sweet and loving voice as before.

Just as a single lonely tear left her eye, and slowly ran down the right side of her face.

After that, she slowly turned around and began making her way over to the black car, trying her hardest not to show her husband. Just how depressed she really was about all of this.

It wasn't long after that, before the small black car sprang to life and drove hastily away from the area, with Kazuma behind the wheel.

And once the limousine was completely out of sight. Dearka looked over at his friend standing next to him.

"Are you all right over there Kira? I know that this is hard on you, but I'm absolutely certain that she will be just fine, with both the Desert Tiger and that Daisuke guy looking after her. It was pretty obvious, that both of them, where quite determined to keep her safe, no matter WHAT!" He said.

Just as he slowly dropped down on the ground, and rest his back up against a large flat rock, he had been standing next to ever since they got there.

Hearing his fellow pilot say that. Kira finally turned his attention away from the direction, which the car had disappeared in, and over at the Murasame pilot, where he smiled slightly at him.

"I guess you are right about that Dearka! But you know better then most people how it is, not being near the one you love, so you can protect her and keep her safe with your own hands!" The brown haired man said. Before he too sat down on the ground, not that far away from his friend.

Thinking slightly about those words. Dearka slowly moved so he ended up laying flat down on the ground, now looking up at the many clouds, floating around above them.

"Yeah it is kinda hard knowing that she is out there somewhere, without having a way to reach her, if she gets in danger" the blond man said. Thinking about just how many times, he had been concerned about Miriallia in the unbearable long month, she had been gone. From time to time it had almost been like torture to him.

Yet as he was so occupied with thinking so hard about that. He did not notice Kira nod a few times in agreement, to everything he had just said.

So not really wanting to talk with each other right now, it did not take many minutes. Before each of the pilots was quite far away in their own thoughts. Both of them waiting somewhat impatiently for the very signal. Which was meant to tell them, that it was about time, that they got moving.

To be continued.


	37. Chapter 37

Chapter 37

They had been driving for about a half hour, when they finally pull up beside the main entrance of the space port.

Where they immediately took notice of just how empty and deserted the place looked right now. And even true that was somewhat suspicious. It at least did made it clear to them, that the copycat hadn't gotten there yet.

If she was there the whole place would most likely be swarming with her many fans.

But the only people they could, see was two female Zaft soldiers in their early twenties. Walking slowly past the car, like they didn't have a care in the world.

Yet the sight of them looking so relax, was enough to make Andrew narrow his one remaining eye slightly.

"Kazuma, open up the window and ask those two chicks what's the heck is going on here. It's almost like they didn't know that the fake Lacus was suppose to arrive soon" he said. Not hiding the fact, that he was having a very bad feeling about all of this, where the hell was all of the welcome committee, and all the people wanting pink haired woman's autograph.

Hearing the man order him that. Kazuma hurried roll down the window, and call out to the two women.

"Hey ladies! Would you mind telling us, what is happening here? This entire places looks like is haunted by handful of ghosts, that has scared everybody away, was it not today that Lacus Clyne was suppose to get here?" He asked, while taking a look around the place. He too couldn't help but feel somewhat on edgy, about all of this. Especially since he had been keeping an eye on the space port, the last couple of days.

And this seriously was the only time he had ever seen it look this empty, which was in his eyes more then enough reason to be nervous and ready to take on anybody that was a threat to them, and even as the two lovely ladies stepped over next to the car, he kept his foot on the gas pedal ready to get them out of there any moment now.

And when he took a small look at the rear-view mirror, he noticed that Daisuke had his hand inside his jacket, seeming a bit like he was searching for something very important.

But Kazuma knew, that he was actually getting ready to pull out his gun, that was hidden away in there.

Yet he seriously hoped that it wouldn't become necessary, for them to kill the two lovely ladies.

Fortunately neither of the two beauties, seemed to have all that much hostile intentions, as they made their way over towards them. "Well yes it was. But unfortunately we are having some trouble getting her shuttle to work. Apparently the engines are so mess up that it can't leave anytime soon. We actually did call the hotel to tell them to let you know what was going on. But it would seem like they where able to give you that message before you left miss Lacus!" The blond one of the two women said, while looking at the pink haired girl at the backseat of the car.

Hearing that, Lacus smile a bit at the two women.

"No it would seem that way. But I guess that's kinda my fault, you see I wanted to go out shopping for a bit before it was time for us to leave earth. But never mind that now, is there no other shuttle around we could use? It doesn't really matter, what kind of model it is, just as long as it's safe to fly in" she said, to the two women in a kind tone.

Hearing the songster ask that. The black haired one of the women got a somewhat thoughtful expression on her face.

"We might just be something you could use miss Lacus. You see the Minerva is suppose to deliver something here shortly, which is as far as I know also meant to go back to the Plants" she explained. Still looking like she was thinking very hard about what she had just suggest.

And it did not take long before she again continued speaking sounding just as thoughtful as before.

"So if it's all right with you miss Lacus? I think it might just be possible that you travel along. But that of course means that some type of mobile suit will be store in the back of the shuttle!" She said.

Now having some doubts about, how wise an idea it was, suggesting something like this, to a woman as popular as Lacus Clyne. Yet much to their minor surprise she actually seemed to be thinking very thoroughly about what had just been suggest.

And after a few seconds she turned and looked over at the badly dressed man beside her. Obviously wanting to hear his opinion on all of this.

He on the other hand, did not answer her immediately. He just reached up and rubbed his chin in a thoughtful manner, he might not show it much. But he was actually quite curious about, what it was that the Minerva was bringing there.

There really was no telling, if they could use, whatever it was against the Chairman. But if they could somehow manage to ruin some of Durandal's plans, he thought it was a very wise move for them to accept this proposal. So with that decision made he again looked back at the two women.

"It's not normally something a celebrity such as miss Lacus should be traveling in, but she has been working quite hard recently, and we are all slightly concerned, that she might be over exhausting herself. So I believe we will accept your proposal. And if we could somehow avoid her fans, that would be great too. She really does need to get some rest!" Andy said, trying to sound somewhat arrogant while talking to the two women.

Not totally happy about the lack of respect. The black haired woman narrowed her eyes a bit, while glaring straight at the man.

"We'll see what we can do. So would you please wait here until we get back!" She growled back in a somewhat displeased tone.

And before either Lacus or Andy had enough time to give her some kind of reply. She hurried turned around on one foot and rushed off. Obviously wanting to get this extra assignment, out of the way in a hurry.

The other girl however stayed there a bit longer. "I know...I know that you said that miss Lacus was tired, but would please give me your autograph?" She asked in a deeply embarrassed tone, while watching the ground like it was the most interesting thing in the entire world. For some reason she just could not help but feel like she was imposing at bit right now.

Especially since the ugly dressed man, had already said that the songster had been feeling quite exhaust, these last few days.

Yet much to her pleasant surprise the celebrity slowly reached over, and gently pull the piece of paper she was holding on to so tightly, out of her grasp.

And it was only a short moment later, when she saw the pink haired songster write her name down on the paper and handing it back to her. "Here you are! I'm really sorry if it's not as nice as usual. It's kinda hard to write in here" Lacus said, while smiling kindly at the other girl. That by now was almost spellbound by the autograph in her hands.

So it was only when Kazuma reached out, and snap his fingers directly in front of her face, that she finally got back to reality. And looked over at the pink haired woman who was properly a few years older then her.

"Thank you very much miss Lacus. I greatly appreciate it" She said in a tone, that left next to no doubt about the honesty in the last sentence. She truly did seem very happy, about having this piece of paper with the celebrity's name on it.

And after mumbling out one more small thank you. It didn't take all that long before she turned around, and went off in the same direction, her friend had disappeared in a few minutes early.

"Man she was a sweet girl, kinda wished that I could have asked for her phone number" Kazuma said.

Sounding somewhat disappointed and deeply crushed, that he had not been able to do that. And even true he couldn't deny, that he had frankly been expected at least a few comments for that remark.

None of the people in there paid all that much attention to him. They all pretty much choose to ignore him and start discoursing, this unexpected development, in their well thought out scheme.

"Are you sure that this is a good idea Waltfeld? If we actually does ends up traveling, on a military shuttle. Then this task can be much more dangerous then what we first expected!" Daisuke said, while looking directly at the other man, with a serious look in both of his dark blue eyes.

Yet after doing that for a few brief second or two, he once more began talking. "There is just no telling how many soldiers is on board that shuttle, and if the Minerva tries interferes, with our take off, we could be in serious trouble" the man said. Not bothering to keep it a secret, that he was still playing around with the small deadly weapon, hidden away inside his coat.

And even true it did not really take the worlds biggest brain, to see the logic in Daisuke's words.

Andy didn't get much time to reconsider his decision about this, when the only female in the car cut in. "I too believe, that this is one of those opportunities we should take advantage off. I'm sure that whatever it is that the Minerva is delivering here, it has to be quite important. So if we could somehow get our hands on it, I think we should do it. You never know if it can help us beat the Chairman!" She said, while looking around at the three men in the car.

Yet even while doing that she could not help but think about how drastic move this was. If Athrun or Nicol somehow noticed them, there was a high chance that they could all be capture.

But if the grey space ship was just dropping by here, to deliver it's cargo. It was very unlikely that any of the ships pilots would even get the time to get off and take a look around the places.

"I just hope those two don't see us, they are the only once here that knows who we really are!" She mutter loudly, while trying hard to figure out, what would happen should they run in to either of their old comrades.

Hearing her say that and knowing what she was thinking about. The Desert Tiger got an even more serious expression on his face.

"Well if we do run across those two. Then just make sure you keep your distance. Remember that you have been working quite hard recently, and that you are really exhaust. If you do that, it should be a good enough excuse, to avoid contact with those two!" Andy said, while giving her a small reassuring smile.

Yet before she could answer him. It had now become Kazuma's turn to interrupted the conversation.

"Now that we are talking about making and having contact with people, here comes the black haired babe again! Man she does looks cute, when she is all mad and grumpy like that!" He said, with a small yet perverted grin on his face.

Just as he nodded a single time, in the direction of the extremely fine looking female specimen, which he could honestly say, that he wouldn't mind spending a couple of hours alone with somewhere.

Most preferably a soft bed or a big haystack. Just a places that was at least somewhat comfortable and warm, so he could really show her, just how lovely a woman he truly thought, she was.

Yet before he could really start daydreaming about the hastily approaching woman.

Daisuke gave him a strong nudge with his left elbow, and just feeling the light wavy of pain from his right side. Was all that was needed to snap the playboy, back out of his perverted thoughts.

Just as the short temper young woman, got back over beside the only open window in the car.

"So gorgeous got any good news for us, and your phone number?" Kazuma immediately asked. Already knowing, that there was no way in hell, she would give him something like that. Especially since she still seemed totally piss, about the way Andy had spoken to her not long ago.

It was kinda obvious, that she was a lady that carried a great deal of pride. And that could only mean that it would take quite a long time, before she would forget the overly arrogant way, Andy had been asking her for a favour.

So after just standing there for a few seconds glaring hatefully at the chauffeur, she really despised men who behaved like this. Not having anything else in their mostly empty heads, other then to flirt with every single woman they came across.

And even true she could not deny, that she was somewhat tempt, to show this thick-headed moron, how big a jerk he really was.

She realized that now wasn't the best time for something like that. And she quite frankly didn't want to get in trouble, for beating up a civilian for no other reason then he had been trying to flirt with her.

That however did not stop her from glaring at him a couple of seconds longer, until she slowly turned her almost piercing yellow gaze away from him, and back at the badly dressed man, sitting in the back seat of the car.

And even true she would very much have liked to glare at him a bit too. She knew that they where in a bit of a hurry right now, seeing as the cargo that where suppose to be on the shuttle too, was now being transfer from the Minerva.

Which of course meant, that it would not be long now, before the smaller space ship, was ready to take off.

"The crew of the shuttle told me to say, that they would all be deeply honoured having you on board miss Lacus. And that they would do their best not to disturb you while you where resting!" The black haired woman said.

Just as she turned, and looked over at the pink haired songstress, that actually looked a bit like, she was ready to drift of to sleep, where she was sitting now.

Yet that did not prevent her, from lifting her head and look over at her. "Thank you very much for all of you help. It would have been quite troublesome if we have to leave, and come back later" the pink haired songstress, kindly told the other girl.

While giving her a tiny smile that made it pretty clear, that she was sincerely grateful, for everything the female Zaft soldier had done for them.

Seeing her do that, and hearing her words, the black haired woman just couldn't help but smile back.

"It's all right miss Lacus! I'm just really relieved, that I could help you out. Now if you and your traveling companions would please follow me, then I'll lead you to the shuttle. And away from all of your fans, you can always give them your autograph once you are feeling better!" She said loudly.

Looking somewhat concerned, about the pink haired celebrity. As far as she knew it was very unlike her to be so fatigued.

So with nothing more to say, three of the people in the car began getting ready to get out.

Yet even while they where doing that, Andrew slowly leaned forward, and told Kazuma in a small tone. That he should remember telling Kira and Dearka, about this new development in their plan.

And that the Minerva was here, which meant that they should most likely prepare face of against some of her mobile suit forces, and perhaps even the ship itself.

Hearing that Kazuma took a small glance over at the black haired girl, that was far too occupied telling miss Lacus how they where going to get to the shuttle without meeting any of her fans.

And satisfied with knowing, that she wasn't really listening in on what they where talking about, he smiled a bit at the Desert Tiger. "Count on me Waltfeld. I'll be sure to tell them everything they need to know, and if something does happen I'll be nearby too" he whispered back.

Before he took yet again a small glance over at their unintentional ally, that by now was much more interested in seeing, the pink haired girl write down her autograph to her.

And relieved to know that she had no idea, about what they where truly up to, he again turned and looked back at Andy.

"If anything does happen Waltfeld, you can always use that girl as a hostage" he said. Realizing that if they tried something like that, this girl would be resisting a great deal.

But it was better that way then they, ended up getting capture by the Zaft forces here. And when he saw the Desert Tiger nod slowly a single time, in understanding to his suggestion.

He once more began talking in a loud tone that all of them could easily hear. "Well hurry up and get out of my car man. I don't have all day to talk with you, I need to get this thing wash before I can head back home!" He all but yelled at the Desert Tiger, doing his best to sound like, he was running very low on patience, and that he really didn't want to be there, any longer then he had to.

Hearing that Andy looked a bit skeptical at the brown haired man, as he turned and crawled out of the car. Yet before he shut the door, he gave the playboy a light smack at the back of his head.

"Thank you very much for driving us here Mr Kazuma, I hope that you have a nice trip home, and that you don't drive over a canyon somewhere!" He said, doing his upmost to sound very polite and friendly, about everything he had just told the women chasing man.

Raising his right eyebrow at that remark, Kazuma slowly reached out and started the car again. "That's pretty mean of you man! You know I still haven't been able to score, that lovely babe's phone number" he said, just as he gave her a small flirtatious wink, then speed off before she had the chance, to do anything extremely painful and unpleasant to him.

Seeing the man and the car disappear in the distance. The black haired woman let out a loud offended sound.

"Hmmf! Men like him, should be pulled out in to the street and shot!" She declared loudly, in a tone that made it completely clear for all of them, that she meant every single word, of what she had just said.

Just knowing that their buddy, had yet another girl after him, that wanted to rid of him in some deeply gruesome way. Was more then enough, to make both Andrew and Daisuke chuckle softly.

As they each tried to image, what kind of scene it would be like, if this girl or one of the many others, Kazuma had succeeded in pissed off, since he had first become a playboy, got their hands on him.

One thing was certain, there was a definitely great deal of ladies out there, that would just love getting their lovely little hands, around his throat.

And truth be told both men, would just love to tell a few of the women, Kazuma had been fooling around with over the years, where he was hiding out now. It would without question, be funny as hell, seeing him do everything he could think of to avoid all of his past girlfriends, or whatever he call them.

Yet as they stood there with those amusing thoughts flying through their heads, the black haired girl's voice suddenly brought them back to reality.

"I seriously don't think, I'll ever understand what some girls sees in guys like him, but never mind that now, lets get going. I do have other duties to attend to. So if you would please follow me, and try not to wander off. The only thing the crew of the shuttle is waiting for is you guys!" She explained.

Just before she began leading them towards a lesser used path of the space port. By going this way, she could make sure, that none of the songstress fans would see her leave.

If the other pink haired girl really was in such a serious need of getting some rest. She was absolutely determined to help her out as much as she could, at least until it was time for the shuttle to take off.

"By the way young miss, do you know anything about, how many crew members is on board the shuttle? I'm sure that you can understand that it wouldn't be good if there is to many people around to, disturbing miss Lacus while she is resting!" Andy said, now once more sounding like a big arrogant jerk.

Which result in, that the girl was somewhat absent minded, as she hastily turned around and immediately answer the question.

"I'm sorry but I really don't know anything about that, but if I had to guess I would say about five or four!" She said angrily, not realizing how vital the information she had just give the man truly was.

And how much it meant, that they had a bit of an idea, about how many people they would have to knock out, before they could gain control of the small space ship.

Yet looking at it with just a bit of logic. It was pretty much impossible for her to have know, what the three people walking behind her, was actually going to do once they got board the shuttle.

It really didn't happen all that often, that a small bunch of people like this, would just calmly waltz in to an enemy base. And swipe a military craft, like it was the most common thing ever.

So with nobody suspecting them at all. It did not take long before they reached their ticket out to their rendezvous with the Eternal.

"Here we are now, I really do hope, you are feeling better, once you get back to the Plants miss Lacus!" The slightly older girl said, while looking at the celebrity with a concerned look, in both of her eyes.

Noticing that, Lacus just couldn't help herself from feeling a little guilty, about tricking the helpful girl like this.

They might only have meet her a short while ago. But this woman had already done a great deal for them, and as much as Lacus disliked lying to her.

She knew that it just couldn't be help, it would be pretty dumb of her to drop the whole whole tired act now. She had to keep on pretending, that she was just about ready to collapse at any moment now.

But that did not mean, that Lacus couldn't at least show her, that she was grateful for the assistance.

"Each of us, really appreciate the help you have given us, and please say hello to your blond friend. She seemed like a very nice person" Lacus said in a kind tone, as she gave the other girl a small polite bow.

Hearing that, the black haired girl smile a bit. "I'll make sure to tell her that. I think it will make her very happy to know, that you thought about her miss Lacus. Now if excuse me I'll be going now. Beside I think that the pilot of the shuttle is waiting for you!" She said loudly.

Before slowly nodding a single time in the direction of the entrance, to the small space ship.

Where they all noticed a small man, with a pair of nerdy specs waiting for them.

And just seeing the way he kept on beating with his left foot, made it kinda obvious that he was running very low on patient, and that he wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible.

Knowing that he had already said more then enough, to piss this young woman off the next couple of days, and that Lacus had already thanked her for the assistance she had given them.

Andrew honestly saw no real reason, to say anything else, that would properly result in her getting even more cranky.

So while mentally preparing himself, to knock the stuck-up guy with the round glasses out, instantly after they got inside the shuttle. The one eyed man slowly step past the two woman, and began making his way over to the ship, with Daisuke following not far behind him.

"Come along now miss Lacus! It would be very impolite of us, to keep the crew waiting, any longer then we already have" the Desert Tiger said calmly, while looking directly at the man, standing just ahead of him.

He could easily tell that this fellow, didn't suspect anything either, and that he had no idea about what was going to happen to him soon. It seemed very much like that the only thing on his mind at the moment, was getting the shuttle in the air.

Taking one short glance over at the Minerva that could be see in the distance. Lacus could see some work being done on the enormous ship.

Yet nothing that show, that they realized what exactly they where up too yet.

But she was pretty certain, that once they took control of the small craft. It would only be a matter of a minutes, before they would have a ton BABIs and other flight type mobile suits on their tail.

She just hoped they could get safely out in to space, before the grey war space ship, could get the Saviour and the Impulse up an running.

She wasn't totally sure if Athrun would actually try to shoot them down. But from what Cagalli had told her, about the guy in the Impulse. She was pretty sure, that he wouldn't even hesitate a second about killing all three of them.

Which made her hope deeply that Kira and Dearka could get here in time. Before the Minerva could get it's two gundams out there to chase them down, if that really happened. It would be even more difficult for them to get away from this place.

And not wanting to increasing the risk of being seen by either the base's personnel, or even the two people on board the Minerva, she honestly consider to be two of her really good friends.

So while still thinking about that. She gave their guide one last quick bow, then immediately turned and went after the two men, who she could see waiting for her by the entrance to the small space ship, which they where planing on _borrowing _without asking.

Once inside the ship, it did not take long before the door flew shut behind them, and seeing as their welcome committee wasn't really that big a fan of the pink haired girl. He just stood there a few minor seconds looking at her, before he turned and got ready to leave.

"Welcome on board miss Lacus, we are all deeply honored to have you trav...!" That was pretty much all the poor fellow got out.

Before the Desert Tiger's right hand, flew in to the left side of his neck.

Which pretty much instantly, send him falling to the floor with a small bump, clearly not going to wake up any time soon. After that and once he was sure that nobody had seen, what he just did he turned and looked over at Daisuke.

"He seemed quite tired, do you think the rest of the crew is in need of a good long nap too?" He quietly, before he slowly kneel down and picked up the unconscious man, then stepped over and opened a small door just opposite of the entrance, where he noticed a few cleaning supplies and a few other things, which was obviously meant to be used to maintain the small ship.

And not wanting anybody on the ship to see this guy, he roughly dumped him in there, then stepped back outside and closed the door again.

Just as he once more turned his attention back towards the other man, who not all that surprisingly, hadn't let his guard down at all.

"Well to answer you question Waltfeld. I believe most of them have been working quite hard recently, so lets do them a favour and fly the shuttle for them, while they get a little well deserved nap" He said, while taking a look around for anything that was a threat to them.

Looking a few times between them. Lacus of course couldn't help but noticed, the tiny grin both of the men had on their faces.

"I don't think, I'll ever be able to understand, how the two of you, can actually make jokes at a time like this. It just seems so unnatural, that you can do that while we are in danger" she told them almost in a whisper, as she took a small nervous glance around, for the other people on the shuttle.

Hearing her say that, Daisuke smiled slightly at her, just as he told her his reason for fooling around at a time like this. "Well it does help keep the tension low. I know that I for one can't fight properly. If I'm walking around being all nervous" he explained. While he reached down in to his pocket and pull out a small device, which he immediately handed over to her.

Slightly puzzled by that action, Lacus took the thing and looked up at the man. "What is this? And why are you giving this to me?" She asked confused, even true she already did know the answer, to the first of her questions.

She might only have seen one of these things, while watching television.

But it wasn't really difficult to figure out, that the small device was a shock gun of some kind, and judging from it's minor sizes, it was clearly meant to be hidden away somewhere on the body, so nobody could find it.

Yet while she tried to figure out the reason for why the man had given this to her. Andy stepped over next to her.

"To tell you the truth, it's actually me, you should be asking that question Lacus. I told Daisuke to bring something along you could use to defend yourself with, incase we got separate" the one eyed man told her.

Just before he reached up, and grapped on to the ugly scratching grey wig, which he immediately throw over his shoulder and on the floor, then once more continued explaining to the girl, how to use the small weapon.

"You just point it at somebody and press the trigger, then your target will get a light shock, that will knock them out for a few hours" he told the woman in a small yet serious tone, as he saw her nod a few times in understanding.

And somewhat pleased to know that she had a bit of an idea about how to use the thing. He decided that it was best not to spend anymore time just standing around down there. Soon or later the crew would start getting suspicious about what was going on.

"Now then lets hurry up and take care of the rest of the crew, Lacus you will becoming with me up to the cockpit, while you Daisuke take care of the guys down in the ship's mobile suit bay. And then take a look around the rest of the ship for anybody else?" Andy asked, while wondering a bit, why nobody had come searching for them yet.

But apparently the only person on this ship, who hadn't been in a lazy mood, was the moron he had knocked out only a few minutes ago, and thrown inside the small closet, to keep him out of sight.

Yet it was becoming somewhat clear, that the rest of the crew was either busy elsewhere, or was using the quiet time to slack of for a bit. Which definitely gave them a bit of an advantage, when taking control of the ship.

"All right you got it buddy, I'll see you two when I'm done!" Daisuke said and left without saying anything else. It actually seemed a bit like, he was looking forward to beat the crap out of the Zaft soldiers, hang out down in the mobile suit bay.

And see what kind of mobile suit, this ship was suppose to transport, back to the Plants. He might not have the ability to use the damn thing, but that certainly did not mean, that he wasn't a bit curious about it.

Once out of sight. Lacus turned and looked over at the man standing next to her.

"He does seem like a kind person, but I can't help but find him a bit strange. I mean is he always so eager to get in to a fight with others?" She asked, while wondering slightly, where in the world Mr Waltfeld knew that guy from.

Thinking a second or two about her question, the one eyed man reached up and scratch his hair a bit.

"Yeah well. I guess this is pretty normal for him, he does prefer to test his fighting skills against powerful opponents, that's actually one of the reason why I decided to take him along in the first places, there isn't really that many people around, that can beat that guy in a fist fight, which I actually think does bothers him a bit" Andrew explained, while thinking about how many times, he had heard Daisuke complain about not having a worthy opponent to fight.

Hearing the man tell her that. Lacus nodded slowly in understanding, while hoping deeply that the fight searching man, wouldn't get himself kill, down in the mobile suit bay.

Yet before she could worry about it for long, they both suddenly heard a loud displeased voice, coming slowly towards them, which made it clear, that now was not the best time, to stand around in once own thoughts.

But as she took a small glance over at the Desert Tiger, to try and figure out what he was thinking about.

He gave her a small sign, that told her that it was best for her to stay where she was, while he took care of whoever it was that had interrupted their little discussion about Daisuke.

And not wanting to increase their chances of being discovered. She just nodded quietly in understanding, as the Desert Tiger began cautiously make his way towards the still approaching man, obviously getting ready to give him the same brutal treatment as the last one.

000000

While all of that was happening on the smaller space ship.

Talia was up on the Minerva's bridge, having a nice little conversation with the top commander of the base.

Seeing as the two of them had been at the academy together, they where quite good friends, and had no trouble finding something to talk about with each other.

The brown haired woman was especially interested in hearing, about how his relationship with one of her other friends from the academy was going.

"So are the two of you still living together? You did say even back at the academy, that you would propose to her once we where done with our training. But did you actually do that? Most of us back then, didn't really think you where brave enough to go through with it" the woman told him, with a small grin on her face. While thinking about some of the more crazy thing they had done back then.

Hearing that the man let out a small laugh. "Wow it's nice to know that you guys had so much faith in me back then. But yes I did propose to her just a few days after we left the academy, and even true she did need a few days to think about it, she did say yes in the end!" He said with a proud smile on his lips.

Just as he was about to tell the woman that they had actually talk about having a kid, before the war broke out.

Yet before he could do that a soldier suddenly cut in to the conversation quite loudly.

"I'm really sorry to interrupted sir. But we just received a weird phone call, from miss Lacus manager, telling us that they will be arriving here within the hour, and that the shuttle better be fully repaired then!" He explained. Not doing anything to hide, that he was more then a bit confused about this.

Not totally sure if the young soldier was serious about what he had just told him. The commander said the very first thing that enter his mind.

"You have got to be kidding, we all of us just saw miss Lacus board the shuttle, that is suppose to take the Gaia gundam back to the Plants!" He yelled out. Already prepared to give the young soldier the biggest scolding he could imagine for pulling such a stupid joke at a time like this.

Unfortunately his next words did disappoint him. "I'm sorry sir! But it's not a joke it's the honest truth!" The teenage said. Sounding very much like, he was just about ready to go in to a panic over all of this.

Still pretty much clueless about what in the world was going on. The top commander blinked a couple times, as he tried to make some sense of this, and finally after a few seconds, he decided what they needed to do.

"Hurry the hell up and get in contact with the shuttle! Make sure that they do not leave, before we can figure out, what the heck is going on!" He ordered loudly, just as the screen in front of them was split in half.

Which meant that now both Talia and him could see the cockpit of the shuttle, where they immediately noticed a large man working on the controls. Clearly getting the small craft ready to launch.

And one single look at him, was more then enough to make it clear, that he was not a part of Zaft. "Who in God's name are you? And what are you planing on doing with that ship?" The deeply puzzled commander asked loudly, while trying to figure out why this man seemed so familiar.

Andrew on the other hand. Just lift his gaze away from the controls, where he looked a few times between Talia and him. It was almost like he wasn't worried one bit about what he was doing and what consequence it could have for him.

Yet before he had the chance to repeat the question. A small childlike smile appeared on the man's lips.

"Why hello again captain Gladys! It's great to see you again, have you finally decided to bring that pizza, we talked about during our last conversation?" He asked in a calm voice, as he continued working on the controls.

While looking directly in to the brown haired woman's lovely eyes. Still behaving very much like, he didn't have one care in the world. And had no idea about just how serious the crimes he was committing truly was.

Hearing the strange man ask her that. Talia couldn't help but get a puzzled look on her face, as she tried figure out, who exactly it was, that had asked her that bizarre question in the past.

Yet it was only after a few long tense seconds. Then her eyes widen slightly in realization, as she finally figured out where it was, she knew this man from.

It wasn't like it happened all that often that somebody would actually ask her for a pizza and a coke over the radio. "So it's YOU! You where that guy, who warned us back in Orb, that strange man who said he was working together with the Desert Tiger!" She call out in shock, while looking the man over, hoping to find something that would tell them, why he was doing this.

Unfortunately he didn't show any hesitation in his actions. And just continued working like it was a completely normal day on the job for him.

Yet as he was doing that the other person listening in on the conversation, suddenly cut in loudly.

"Don't kid yourself Waltfeld, Talia might not be able to recognize you. But I remember your mug everywhere. I was after all suppose to be apart of the Eternal's crew when you, and the rest of those damn traitors throw us all off. So tell me what you are up to now, you damn bastard?" He demand in a loud voice.

As he stood there looking at the man, who had wound his pride so badly two years ago.

Looking the angry man over a bit. Andy got a somewhat thoughtful look on his face.

"Well not hurt you feelings or anything like that buddy, but I don't really remember you. But if it's any consolation I am _very_ sorry about it. Now then as much as I like talking with an old friend, and a lovely woman such as you captain Gladys. I believe that it's about time for us to get going. By the way before I forget, thank you very much for the gundam. I'll be sure to put it to good use!" He said, with a great deal of sarcasm in his voice.

And with that the communication was cut off, and the small space ship, began hastily making it's way down the runway.

Seeing that, the top commander quickly got out of the shock he had been trap in the last few minutes. And yell out a few loud orders.

"Damn it all! There is no way I'm going to let that man get away with yet another one of Zaft's ships, so hurry up and get all of the mobile suits out there! Shoot that bastard of a traitor down, no matter what!" He ordered loudly. Actually sounding quite a bit like a small hysterical child, that wanted a new piece of toy and had no idea about how much he was embarrassing himself right now.

Yet just as those words had left his mouth. Meyrin who was also up on the Minerva's bridge yell out a few more bad news.

"Captain the Freedom, is coming directly towards us, followed by a single Orb Murasame!" The girl explained. Just as the screen show the two mobile suits getting closer and closer to the base.

Which was a clear sign, that it would not be long now. Before a battle would start, above the space port.

And knowing that. Talia instantly shout out for the ship to go over to condition red.

And to get the two gundams and the GOUF out there, to counter the two, still hastily approaching mobile suits, and to try and stop the shuttle, that had already gotten quite far down the runway.

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So with the alarms now sounding all over the ship. Athrun and Nicol was hastily making their way down to the ships hangar.

Both of them wondering what in the world was going on, as for what little they knew about this base and what they had been told. This base had yet to suffer any of the Earth Forces' large attacks, they had pretty much left this place alone since the war started.

Seeing as this base didn't have a whole lot of strategic value, as it was located quite far away from any enemy territory.

Which was actually one of the reasons why it had been decided, to ship the Gaia out from there. They did not want the Earth Forces to get their hands on it one more time.

But as the two former members of the Le Creuset team, was wondering what was going on.

They both hurried enter the hangar, where the very first thing they saw, was the ship's only female pilot standing over by her ZAKU. Apparently hoping that she could somehow help out, even true it had only been the pilots of the three flight capable mobile suits that had been call in to action.

"What's happening Lunamaria? Is it the Earth Forces!" Nicol asked the girl. While taking a quick look around the hangar, where he could easily tell, that he was not the only one worried about losing the Gaia to the Earth Forces again. After they had gone through so much trouble, getting it back.

Yet once he heard her reply. He would honestly would have preferred, that it was the Earth Forces that was out there.

"Well I don't really have all of the details! But apparently, some weird looking man, and a girl looking very much like miss Lacus, have just ran off with the shuttle that had the Gaia on board. And that's not the only bad news, both the Freedom and that blue Murasame is out there fighting to protect the shuttle!" The female pilot said loudly.

Truly angry that somebody was actually trying to steal the Gaia one more time.

Yet as she stood there, trying to get at least a little control, over the deep anger she was feeling right now. She didn't notice the thoughtful frown, Athrun now had on his face.

He might not totally understand what was happening outside. But one thing was sure, if Kira and Dearka was presently fighting to keep the Zaft forces away from the small shuttle.

It could only mean, that the real Lacus was on board that ship.

And knowing better then most how protective his best friend could be over the woman he loved. Athrun realized that if there was anybody out there that did try to shoot down the shuttle, there was a minor possibility, that Kira would cease with his none killing fighting style.

Which could definitely be dangerous for all of them. So he just had to do something to stop Kira, and bring the shuttle to a hold without destroying it.

If Lacus got kill out there, he knew that there was no way neither Kira or Cagalli would ever forgive him. But he just couldn't let them get away with that ship, and the Gaia gundam.

"Damn it, lets go Nicol. We need to stop them before anybody gets hurt, and they can escape with the Gaia!" The blue haired young man said, as he turned and took off towards his mobile suit. Not even bothering to give Nicol the necessary time, to give him some sort of response.

He just need to get outside and put a stop to the Freedom as quickly as possible.

Which he already knew, was properly easier said then done.

With Lacus being involve in this, there was simply no way in hell, that Kira would permit anybody, to get anywhere near the small stolen space ship, so they could try and force it back down to the ground.

But he at the very least just had to try. They could not let them get away now.

And with those thoughts rummaging through his mind, he immediately wrapped his right hand around the thick black cable, which was supposed to take him up to the Saviour's cockpit.

Realizing that it would not be long now, before he would have a very tough fight on his hands.

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Meanwhile outside Kira quickly took aim and fired the beam rifle two times, destroying first the head on one BABI then the right arm of the next one.

But even while doing that, he instantly roll to the side, to avoid another attack from a pair of newer Zaft mobile suit, which meant that now the Freedom was up side down, where he instantly fired of both plasma cannons. So the two red powerful beams flew in, and destroyed the head and right arm, on one of the BABIs, just as it had been about to attack him one more time.

And before the other mobile suit could even try and aim at him again. Dearka's Murasame show up in it's mobile suit mode and immediately fired a couple of shots down in to the chest of the enemy mobile suit, thereby making it blow up not that far away from them.

"Damn, there is a lot more of these things here then I thought!" Dearka complained, while continuously firing off the beam rifle after yet another group of approaching BABIs, that was trying to get around him and the Freedom, so they could reach to the shuttle.

Hearing that Kira took a small glance over at the space ship, which his wife was on board, where he saw that it was now airborne, and that could only mean that it would not be long now before it was out in space.

But with the about twenty BABIs heading towards the shuttle, there was still a chance that one of them would actually hit the craft, and with that in mind, he activated the target lock system.

And it was only about a half minute later, when the gundam fired just about all of it's weapon, disabling more then a few of the flight type mobile suits.

"Yeah, I know Dearka. But look at the bright side, we only have to fight them until the shuttle is safely away, after that the two of us can retreat, and head back to the Archangel!" Kira yelled out to his friend.

Just before he pulled out the right beam saber, and took of towards five of the BABIs, which was apparently hoping, that they could somehow keep Dearka and him occupied, while the rest of the BABIs took out the hastily ascending shuttle in the distance.

Yet when Kira got in between the five mobile suits, he swiftly thrust the beam saber out, and cut the head of the first one of the BABIs, then hurried moved the saber upwards which removed both arms on the next one, then flew up over a minor attack from behind, while turning around at just the same time, where he fired of both rail cannons down at the third mobile suit.

Destroying about half of the weapons it had in it's mobile suit mode.

Yet before he could do something about the other two, a pair of small yet effective missiles, came flying in from out of nowhere, and slammed in to the back of the fourth BABI, making it blow up not that far from him.

"Kira you go after those two that is heading for the shuttle, I'll handle the last of these guys!" Dearka said in a loud tone, just as the Murasame, got back over in to it's mobile suit mode and pull out it's beam rifle, clearly getting ready to beat the crap out of the purple machine in front of him.

Hearing that, Kira turned and took off after the two BABIs, that was getting closer and closer to the shuttle.

"Thank you Dearka, I really own you a big favour!" Kira said, while he kept on increasing the Freedom's speed. Truly hoping he could get there in time, before those men in the mobile armor transformed mobile suits, could kill the woman he loved.

Fortunately it did not take many seconds, before he zoom straight past the two BABIs.

Then instantly turned around, and fired one shot at each of them, taking out the engine on the closed one of them, which meant it was pretty much impossible, for it to stay airborne any longer.

The other one however, somehow manage to avoid, the green beam intend for it, by transforming back over in to it's mobile suit mode.

"I'm going to take you out right now Freedom!" The pilot yell out in a deep determined tone. As he fired of the two hand held weapons, and the cannon install in the machine's chest area.

Seeing all of those beams heading right at him, Kira didn't waste anytime in getting the shield up to counter the first two attacks, after doing that he immediately throw the Freedom to the side, just as the thick red destructive beam flew right past him.

Knowing how dangerously close the last attack had been, he did not want to give this guy another chance, he hurried took aim and fired a pair of beams at the BABI before it could do anything else.

And just like last time, only one of the green beams found it's target, blowing of the left arm on the BABI. But while the atmosphere flight mobile suit tried to increase the distance between them.

Kira gave his low lip a light bite, as he carefully took aim, he seriously didn't want to kill this guy if he could avoid it.

And just as he saw the BABI, raise it's remaining hand held weapon, to attack him one more time, he hurried fired a single well placed shot from the rifle, which blow the right arm, straight of the purple machine.

Yet even after that, it still seemed a bit like the pilot in the BABI, wanted to continue on with their battle.

But much to Kira's small surprise, the man over in the other mobile suit began laughing loudly.

"Heh! I guess you are still as formidable a foe, as the last time we fought each other Freedom! Now hurry up and getting moving, there is somebody very important to you on that shuttle. And I'm certainly not going to just throw my life away, after you went through the trouble of sparing it twice now" the BABI commander said.

Just before he turned the armless mobile suit around, and began making his way back to the base. Truly pleased to know, that he had once more gone up against such a powerful opponent. It made the adrenaline pump through his body faster, then it had ever done before, and it made him even more determined, to improve his skills, and become an even better pilot then he was now.

Maybe by doing that, he would be able to last at least a bit longer, the next time he came across the Freedom, and that thought alone was more then enough to make the grin on his face grew a little bigger, as he got ready to land.

Looking after the BABI for a moment or two, Kira couldn't help but wonder a brief second or two where exactly, he had fought against him before. "What are weird pilot, but he was right about one thing, I better hurry and catch up with the shuttle, before anybody else can threaten it!" He said to himself.

Just before his mobile suit to spread out it's ten long wings, and took off after the shuttle, determined to defend it, until it was completely out of sight, and none of the Zaft force in the area could shot it down or stop it.

Yet as Kira was racing after the craft carrying his wife. Dearka was still going up against the last of the BABIs out there. Yet unlike the other once which he and Kira had taken out relatively easy when they had gotten there.

The pilot inside this machine was quite good, and with the BABI more heavily armed, in the long distance combat department, he was having a few problems, taking this guy out, which to be frank did piss him off a bit.

That however did not mean, that he was giving the fellow over in the BABI an easy time, he made sure to keep moving and fire of his beam rifle every single time, the opportunity presented itself. But to his minor irritation he didn't really have much luck in hitting the enemy unit, that was moving around all over the place, at just about the same speed as himself.

"Damn it! This isn't getting me anywhere time for a change in tactic!" He growled loudly, while at the same time evading up over the next couple of attacks, from both of the purple BABI's, hand held weapons.

After that he instantly reached out, and got the Murasame, over in to it's mobile armor, which he knew would give him a small edge when talking about speed.

But he realized, that if the BABI was meant as a replacement for the DINN, it was definitely no slowpoke when talking about speed.

Yet with all of those weapons it was carrying around, it was bound to be much more heavy, then a Orb Murasame, and that would undoubtedly, slow the other flight type mobile suit down quite a bit.

So while he was flying around at top speed, the BABI kept on firing, both of it's hand held weapons after him.

Yet thanks to all of the past experience, he had gain from being the Buster's pilot, he was quite accustomed, to the whole long distances combat routine, which meant that he had very few problems, predict and avoiding all of the lonely mobile suits attacks.

But if any kind of reinforcement happened showed up to help this guy out.

He knew that he could be in some real serious trouble, so it was properly a very wise idea, to get rid of this fellow as quickly as possible.

And he already had, an idea about how to take him out, it was just a matter of carrying it out, before his opponent would somehow get in a lucky hit on him.

So while swiftly rolling away, from two other attacks from the BABI, he didn't waste any time, in pointing the front of the Murasame at the other machine, and before it had the opportunity to do anything else he fired of two missiles at the BABI, which the pilot of course immediately tried to destroy before they could get to close to him.

Yet while he was occupied with that, at least for a small second or two, Dearka instantly got the Murasame over in to it's mobile suit mode, where he hurried fired of a couple of shots from the beam rifle at the other machine.

And seeing as it had just finished taking out the two missiles, the pilot simply didn't have the enough time, to avoid the green beams heading his way, which meant that the first one flew in a destroyed the left arm on the BABI, while the last one hit the chest area, which not surprisingly, made the purple war machine, blow up just a half second later.

It was just about that time, when the Freedom got over beside him. "So Kira, did the three of them, get safely away from here?" Dearka asked, while looking over at his friend's mobile suit, wondering slightly what the other pilot was thinking about at the moment.

But even true Kira had heard the one question Dearka had just asked him, he didn't really give him a reply back that very instant.

He just sat there in absolute silence, trying to figure out when he would be able to once again see his wife, there truly was no way for him to know, how many weeks or even months, would have to go by, before he would be reunion with her again.

Yet after sitting there for a few quiet seconds, he let out a deep breath.

"Yeah! Each of them where ok, they didn't really have much trouble dealing with the ship's crew, seeing as none of them had actually expect anything, and from what little they told me, they even manage to get their hands on the Gaia gundam, which apparently was suppose to be taken back to the Plants. So I guess the entire thing went pretty well!" He said, sounding just a tiny bit sad.

Truly happy to know, that the shuttle and their allies where all safe, Dearka sighing softly in relief. "It's great to know, that nothing happened to any of them. Now shall we retreat, or do you want to say hello to our two so called friends?" He asked, while using the beam rifle to point at the transformed Saviour gundam and the yellow GOUF, which they both knew belonged to Nicol.

Looking a bit at the two mobile suits, Kira slowly narrowed his eyes as he seriously consider what they should do now.

He knew that it would most likely be best, that they hurried turned around and left the area. But even so there was still one single thing, he honestly wanted to do now that he had the chance.

"Lets stay just a bit longer Dearka. I do have a small matter, I need to discourse with Athrun!" He said in a unhappy voice, just as both of the plasma cannons flipped over the Freedom's shoulder, where they instantly fired off two red beam each after the Saviour.

But with the long distance still between them. Athrun apparently didn't find it too difficult, to avoid his first attack.

Yet that only served, to make Kira turn the Freedom a bit to the side and fire a second time, after his best friend's red mobile suit.

Which of course immediately roll away from the attack, but that just made Kira shoot of the weapons a third time.

Seeing that and knowing what Kira was referring to, the blond man grin slightly, while turning his gaze away from the Freedom, and back towards, the two still hastily approaching mobile suits.

"Fine with me Kira. I do own Nicol some payback for all of the damage he did to my mobile suit, the last time we met. So let hurry up and go say congratulation to the new daddy. I'm certain he is going to be quite pleased by getting news like this!" The blond boy said, just as he moved the long range deadly weapon a bit, then fired a few shots after the yellow mobile suit.

Yet while they where firing one attack after another, both Athrun and Nicol was somewhat surprise by this situation.

"Ok this is a bit strange, I was actually expecting them to withdraw once the shuttle was gone!" Nicol yelled. Just as he raised the shield, to defend himself from Dearka's next attack, then swiftly reduced the thrust of the mobile suit, so he dropped down under the next couple of beams coming his way.

"Damn it, he just isn't letting up at all here!" The green haired man complained, just as the beam sword flew out from the shield, which he immediately grab on to with the right hand.

He knew, that there was just no way he could beat, Dearka in long distance combat at this moment in time, so what was the point of even trying, he had to find away to get closer to him.

By doing that, he could force Dearka to depend on the one hand-to-hand weapon the Murasame had. If he could do that, there was a big chance that he could either destroy the Orb machine, or force it away from the area.

But even true that plan did sound pretty good in his head. There wasn't any kind of break in Dearka's many attacks, which meant it seemed pretty much impossible for him, to turn this battle away from the long distance kind, and over to close combat instead.

Hearing him say that, and seeing what the problem was, Athrun was just about to give Nicol a hand, when two more red beams came flying towards him.

And with him being momentarily distract by Nicol's and Dearka's battle, the attack came dangerously close to hitting the right wing on the Saviour, and it also served as a pretty good remind him, that he could not afford to just ignore the Freedom right now.

He had to defeat Kira first before he could help out Nicol.

But as luck would have it, Kira seemed absolutely determined, to put more then one or two holes, through the Saviour, with those damn plasma cannons.

"Damn it Kira, there is no reason for this. Neither you or Dearka have any reason to stay here, didn't you already accomplish what you came here for!" Athrun yelled loudly, while rolling over the next attack from the Freedom's shoulder cannons.

Yet as he was doing that, Kira apparently decided, that it was finally enough with the plasma cannons, instead the Freedom shot full speed forward and reached over and pull out the right beam saber, obviously getting ready to use the weapon on the Saviour.

"Well lets just say, that there was a few things I really wanted to tell you about!" Kira yelled back over from the Freedom, not bothering to hide, that he was in a very bad mood about something right now.

And even before Athrun could get his mouth open to ask about it, the brown haired man swung the saber out after the other gundam, once more trying to remove the right wing on the Saviour.

And it was pretty much by share luck, that Athrun even manage to avoid, getting some serious damage on the gundam. Which would properly have gotten both Vino and Yolant, to complain a lot to him the next many days.

But even as the Saviour roll away from him, Kira did not cease with his small chase, instead he went over in to seed mood, then swiftly lifted the left arm and instantly throw the shield, over in to the side of the Saviour with as much force as possible.

"I'm not going to tell you, that you guys made a mistake Athrun. I just seriously hope that you are going to take responsibility for it. If you don't you can be damn sure that it will be more then just your mobile suit, I'm going to beat up" Kira said, before he slowly placed the beam saber, back where it belonged on the Freedom, now just waiting to hear what Athrun had to say. Realizing that the somewhat brutal assault was over.

Athrun reach out, and finally got the Saviour back over in to it's mobile suit mode, with the violent way Kira had been attacking him, ever since he and had gotten out there, he just hadn't been able to do that before now.

And seeing that, Kira didn't have any of the Freedom's weapons out, Athrun knew that their small fight was over, at least for now.

"What are you talking about Kira? I thought the only reason, you guys came here, was to steal that shuttle. So Lacus could get safely out to the Eternal" the confused blue haired teen said. Not doing anything to hide, that he was having quite the headache at the moment, from Kira's last stunt with the shield. He could not describe how incredible loud that had echo through the cockpit, it truly had been a painful experience.

Looking the red machine over for a moment or two, Kira seriously wondered what his friend was thinking about right now.

"Athrun, in just about eight months you are going to become a father, so would you PLEASE consider coming back to the Archangel? Cagalli might be to stubborn to admit it out loud, but she really does need you are lot right now. I can't even recall how many times I have caught her playing around with her engagement ring!" The brown haired man said, with small amount of anger in his voice.

Of all the things Athrun had expected Kira to tell him here, that had definitely not been one of them, and now that he had heard it, he had a very hard time figuring out just how he was suppose to react.

It wasn't really everyday, that once best friend would show up from out of nowhere, to tell one that the woman he was in-love with, was pregnant with their child and that she missed him a lot.

"I...I...that's...Kira...I didn't know...!" Athrun tried to say, while he thought about what else he should say, but he pretty much came up blank, in the whole speak department.

So in the end, without saying another word he fell slowly back in the Saviour's cockpit, and sat quietly there thinking about. Cagalli and how she was feeling about all of this, one thing was sure, she definitely had to be very uneasy, about the whole matter.

But as Athrun tried to make up his mind about what to do, Kira suddenly interrupted his thoughts.

"Well that's just about everything, I wanted to tell Athrun, now it would properly be wise for me and Dearka to get out of here. I can see the Impulse heading directly towards us! I frankly don't get why, you decided to join Zaft again, and I don't think I ever will, but try and figure out where it is, that you belong Athrun!" He told his friend.

With that said he turned away, and fired a couple of beams in the direction of the yellow GOUF, to get Nicol to back away from Dearka's Murasame, which it was still fighting against.

Amazingly enough, not one of the mass-produced machines, had taken any kind of damage yet, even true their battle had been very intense, the last few minutes.

Yet once Dearka saw his old team mate back away from him. He immediately realized that it was time for them to get going.

"Man, and it was just starting to get fun. But I guess we'll just have to finish this some other time Nicol. I'll see you later!" The blond teen called out, before he got the Murasame over in to it's mobile armor mode then took off full speed away from the area.

Hearing that and seeing the two mobile suits leave. Athrun finally snapped back out of his thoughts.

"Wait a minute Kira, I still want to talk about thi...!" That was about all he got out.

Just as he watched the Freedom, quickly drop down under an attack from the Impulse, then fly full speed straight down, where it swiftly pick up it's shield again, then took off in the same direction, as the blue Murasame.

And once the gundam was completely out of sight, Athrun let out a deep breath. "Damn it! Why couldn't they have wait just a bit longer, there are still so many things I needed to talk with Kira about!" He muttered to himself, while glaring a bit at the Impulse, even true he already knew, that Shinn and that Impulse wasn't the reason why they had left. It was most likely because, Kira had told him about everything, he had to say.

But Athrun kinda wished, that he had stuck around just a bit longer. At least until he had the chance to get over the minor shock, of being told that he was going to be a father.

He really had been wanting to ask Kira about how she was doing and if she was feeling all right.

Truth be told, he had a whole bunch, of vital questions, he had wanted to ask his best friend about. But it was just too late now, both Dearka and him was already far away from the area, perhaps even down in the ocean heading back to the Archangel.

Yet as he was thinking about that. Shinn's loud voice suddenly cut in to his thoughts.

"Why the heck didn't you fight him Zala! You where just hang around there doing nothing. How the hell could the Chairman even think about giving you that mobile suit! When you are just wasting it's power!" The dark haired boy shout loudly. Not giving a damn that that it was a high ranking officer, he was talking to in such a manner.

Hearing that Athrun turned and looked away from the direction, Kira and Dearka had disappeared in.

"You should not be pointing fingers Asuka! What where you up to all of this time? Why didn't you launch when the alarm sounded? And you better not tell me you fell asleep while watching that enemy pilot!" Athrun said, completely and utterly pissed of right now, and if Shinn provoked him in anyway he was more then prepared to give him the biggest ear full ever.

He seriously wasn't in the mood, to be a nice friendly commander at the moment.

So if Shinn decided to continue the argument. He would most definitely not settle for giving him a small warning.

"Well it wasn't like I wanted to stay back there and wait around not doing anything. But Vino and Yolant was running a maintenance check on the Core Splendor, so I couldn't really leave before now!" The boy explained.

Having realized that Athrun was just as angry, as that one time he had hit him, for disobey his orders to retreat. And he seriously did not feel like, getting a smack like that again, if he could avoid it.

Satisfied with the somewhat reasonable response. Even true it had not really been done, in the most friendly tone. Athrun slowly turned his back towards the Impulse gundam.

"I understand what the problem was Shinn! But what I'm curious about is, what you where doing, while they where working so hard on your machine, you have been ignoring your duties a lot these last few days, so straighten up it's also your job to help look after the Impulse!" He said in a angry voice. Knowing that, he was taking some of his frustration out on the other pilot.

But he just couldn't help himself. Shinn's bad attitude really got on his nerves right now. "Ok! I'll be sure to help out, with the Impulse's next maintenance check. Now can we go back to the ship, there is something I really need to do!" He said in a displeased tone. Seriously worried that Stella would wake up, from the deep coma she had been in, ever since she was brought on board the Minerva, and he honestly didn't want to think about, how badly she was going to react, should she wake up with him not being there.

If that actually happened, she was bound to be scared out of her mind. So he really wanted to be there to comfort her and protect her, once she finally woke up.

And even after being told by his commanding to straighten up. He was absolutely determined to stay by her bedside for as much as possible, until she got back out of her deep coma.

Already having a pretty good idea about why Shinn was in such a big hurry to get back to the ship. Athrun let out a soft sigh. "Yeah, there isn't much reason for us to stay out here anymore!" The deeply puzzled young man said. Seriously wondering what he would have done, if Kira and Dearka had stuck around there long enough for him to go over everything Kira had just said to him.

Would he actually have gone with them back to the Archangel, and the woman he loved, or would he have stayed loyal to Zaft.

He just couldn't find the correct answer to any of these questions right now.

The only thing that was somewhat clear to him, was that he needed a few hours alone. So he could think about everything, and make up his mind about, what in the world he should do now.

So without even waiting for his friends, he go the red mobile suit moving, and began slowly making his way back to the enormous grey space ship, he had been living on for the last few weeks.

Yet even while doing that, it became clear that it was pretty much impossible for him, to keep Kira's words out of his mind.

It truly was painful, and very tough for him to know, that Cagalli missed him so much right now. And that there was really nothing, he could do about it, at the present moment in time.

Which was why, he kinda wished that those two, could have stayed put just a bit longer. So he could at least have tried to straighten out the large amount, of puzzled thoughts, that was flying through his mind.

To be continued.

One thing I always wonder about in the original gundam seed destiny is how the Gaia gundam ended up on the Eternal. So I hope that you guys like this explanation for that small matter. Let me know what you think.


	38. Chapter 38

I'm sorry for the delay guys. I have used most of my free time these last few weeks to play Elder Scrolls Skyrim. As I'm sure some of you know, that game is quite hard to put down when you first get start on it.

Chapter 38

It was the day after Athrun's little chat with his best friend. And with everything he had been told, the blue haired young man had pretty much stayed cooped up in his room, ever since they got back to the ship yesterday. He hadn't even bother to leave the location on the bed to get some breakfast.

Yet even with all the time he had spend there, the sleep he had gotten through the night had been quite that one time he finally drift off, he ended up having some spooky dream, about his mother being killed at Junius Seven. Which to be honest, had been more then horrifying enough on it's own. Yet when he had suddenly seen, a highly pregnant Cagalli die right along with her in the explosion that destroyed the colony. He had immediately woken up drench in sweat from head to toe.

Seeing two of the most important people in his life disappear at exactly the same time, really was the most awful thing he could ever image. And it had left him slightly longing to have somebody, he could talk with about all of this.

Unfortunately there wasn't really anybody on the Minerva, he felt emotional close enough to for such a serious discussion. There was to tell the truth, only one person on the entire ship he would even consider talking with about the whole going to be a father thing, and that was Nicol.

But for some inexplicable reason, he didn't really feel as close to the green haired pilot, as he had been under the last Bloody Valentine war.

It might only be a couple of minor things up until now. But it was kinda becoming more and more obvious, that Nicol's personality, had change slightly these last two years. It was especially when, they where out in combat, that Athrun had noticed a few alteration in Nicol's fighting style. And to be somewhat honest they where not the kind of change, he would describe as good.

Back when he had been the Blitz's pilot he always had the minor tendency to try and avoid hitting the enemy mobile suits cockpit directly. The only time as far Athrun knew, he had gone for that place intentionally was when he had destroyed the Calamity. Not that anybody could really blame him for that.

Yet now however he seemed so much more determined to hit that places, so the pilots inside the machines had no real chances of survival. And seeing such a change in his once fight hating friend, was frankly not something he liked.

And he seriously wonder if Nicol more violent way of finishing the enemy of was a direct result of Mayura getting killed. But as much as he would actually like to ask Nicol about it. He knew that there was no way he could do that, without bring up more then a few painful memories. Which was definitely not something, he wanted to do. They might not be as close friends as they where in the past. But Athrun still consider the former Blitz pilot, a very good comrade, that he surely didn't want to lose for asking foolish questions, about the past.

But that also meant that he was pretty much on his own right now. He frankly did not really care, if the entire crew knew, that Cagalli and him where engaged. But he did not want anybody to know, that she was pregnant with his child.

Shinn had already made it pretty clear, that he wanted to kill her. So if he actually heard something about this. Athrun was pretty certain, that the Impulse pilot, would feel an even deeper desire to get rid of her. He truly did seem to have something against, Cagalli feeling any kind of happiness.

Which was one of the reason why Athrun was seriously starting to doubt his decision about joining Zaft again. No matter how much time he spend here on the Minerva, he just didn't have the same homelike feelings, he had on the Archangel or even the Eternal.

It was kinda like he didn't belonged here at all, and he was honestly starting to miss the whole family thing, he had with a large part of the Archangel's crew. If he had been over on that ship, he could pretty much have talked, with almost everybody about what was bothering him. Yet here on the other hand, it just didn't feel right at all. There was not one person around he could just calmly walk over to, and starting talking with about his future wife's pregnancy.

"Damn it, what am I doing here?" He wonder out loud. Just as he slowly turned over and looked in to the wall, now thinking about the whole assassination attempt on Lacus. Ever since Kira had told him about that, he had tried his best to dig up some useful information about it. But no matter what he did, he had yet to find anything about the nine ASH type mobile suits being stolen or send to Orb. Which was starting to make him wonder if the Chairman, really was trying to make a peaceful world, for all of them.

There was just so many things, that seemed somewhat strange about all of this. If somebody really had ran of with nine ASH type mobile suits, why the heck did Zaft find it necessary to hide it. They hadn't done something like that, when the Earth Forces had ran off with the Chaos, Gaia and Abyss. There was most likely only a few Zaft soldiers, in the whole world, that didn't know at least something about the Theft at Armory One.

So why was there nothing about those damn ASH types, was it actually the Chairman, who had send those damn things after the pink haired woman.

One thing was definitely sure, if he really was the one responsible for that attack. The large amount of respect and loyalty Athrun had for the Chairman would without a doubt disappear.

Which could mean, that he might just end up up fighting against Shinn, or perhaps even Nicol, that apparently hadn't given what Kira and Dearka had told them back at Crete, nearly as much thought as he had, which actually did seem bit strange. Normally Nicol was the type of person that thought very thoroughly about every single piece of information, he got.

But perhaps Nicol had, decide not to put too much thought in to the whole thing Kira and Dearka had said about somebody trying to kill Lacus. It was after all quite hard to believe, and if Nicol still remain faithful to the Chairman. That meant, that there was no way that Athrun could just walk over to him, and start talking with him about how sincere the Chairman's plan really was.

As suspicious as Athrun might be about all of this. It didn't really change the fact, that he had no definite proof, about the Chairman's involvement in the attack. So for now at least, he would remain here, as a part of the grey space ship's crew.

If for nothing else, then to search for the truth about the black haired man's intention.

And if it turned out, that the whole thing with Zaft and the Plants, only wanting to fight defensive battles. Was just one big cleverly plan parade, that the Chairman had put together, to hide from the public what he was really working on, wasn't nearly as cheerful as he let on.

If that really was the case, then Athrun would most definitely leave the ship without a moments hesitation. He did not want to help out with some crazy scheme, that might end up causing more death and destruction to the world. That was not the reason why, he had made the decision to join Zaft again, he had done that in an attempt to keep his fiancée, the married couple, and everybody else out of the war. But also to make a world where Coordinators and Naturals could live alone side each other again.

And if the Chairman really was up to something else entirely, then making the world a peaceful place for all of them. Then there was no real reason for him to stay there any longer. Yet even as he kept on thinking about that, he slowly turned over, and looked back up at the ceiling like it was the most interesting thing ever.

"If all of us really are being fool here, maybe I should consider putting an activation lock on the Saviour's system. That way I could make certain that it would be quite hard for anybody else to use that machine, incase I have to leave this place in a hurry" he quietly mumbled to himself. Just before he slowly reach over and grab on to the cover, which he pull over himself. Seriously hoping, that nobody would disturb him for a few hours, while he got some much needed sleep.

After being awake through most of the night. He was having a very difficult time, keeping both of his eyes open. And it only took a few short minutes for him to drift off in to a deep sleep.

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Yet while Athrun was resting in his room.

He had no idea about, how worried the two Hawke sisters, was about his lack of appearance since yesterday. He normally wasn't the type of person, that would just wander of to sulk somewhere on his own.

Even if he was in a bad mood, it was very unusual for him not to show up when it was time for breakfast. And realizing that his little rundown with the Freedom hadn't gone to well, both girls had instantly decided to go down and check on him.

Not that any of the two redheads, was overly delighted about having the other along for company. They had both made the calculation, that now was the most perfect chance to spend a little alone time, with the handsome blue haired man. And when the two sisters had realized, that they where heading in the same direction. It had almost lead to an argument between them, seeing as neither of them want a third wheel along for this visit.

Yet before they could even start yelling at each other. The captain had past them, which had pretty much put a stop to the fight, before it could even begin.

So in the end they had to be satisfied with just glaring over at each other, every third second. Each of them sincerely hoping that something would happen, that would prevent the other from going any further.

Yet as they where getting closer and closer to their destination, it was becoming somewhat obvious to the girls, that they where not going to have that sweet romantic moment, they had both been dreaming about having with Athrun, when they had left the mess hall.

But even true Meyrin could not deny, that he big sister's present still annoyed her greatly. It was becoming quite difficult for her to keep the question back, which she had been wondering about the last few minutes.

So after letting out a small sigh, she finally brought the deep silence between them, to an end. "Do you think Athrun is all right. Perhaps he is getting sick or something like that?" The youngish of the two redheads asked, not doing anything to hide the deep concern in her voice. Ever since Athrun had become a permanent part of the Minerva's crew. Meyrin had found herself developing quite the crush on the slightly older teen.

And unlike her sister she had no idea, about his engagement to Cagalli, she just found herself liking it more and more being around him. Especially because he was so much more mature, then most of the other boys on the ship, the only one that even came close to him was Rey, but for some inexplicable reason, she never found the blond haired teen all that attractive. But maybe that was because, she kinda felt like he was hiding a whole bunch of stuff from them, and that actually frightened her a bit.

He was just so overly intimidating to her with all of his secrecy. And she couldn't even imagine herself dating somebody that would never tell her anything, that frankly would be a very boring and insulated relationship. And that was most definitely not something, she wanted in a boyfriend. Athrun just seemed so much more open and compassionate then Rey, like somebody could actually tell him everything, and he would still listen to her no matter what.

Yet as she continued standing there getting more and more giddy, the deeper she disappeared in to her thoughts. Lunamaria just couldn't stop herself, from rolling her eyes a single time, at her younger sister's slightly odd behavior.

But when she saw the smile on Meyrin's face grew a bit in size, a small displeased vein, slowly appeared on her forehead. It wasn't like it required the world's biggest mind reader, to figure out that Meyrin was daydreaming about Athrun at the moment.

And to be completely honest Luna did not really like that idea. She already had one rival in Cagalli Yula Athha, and she frankly didn't need another one to compete with over Athrun's affection. It was bothersome enough, that the blond girl had such a big lead, it definitely didn't help. That she now had to keep a close eye on her sister too, incase she suddenly came up with someway, to win Athrun's heart, away from the Orb princess. But if she knew Meyrin correctly she was way to shy to do anything to drastic, so it was still Cagalli that was the main competition in this whole thing.

Yet there was a small part of her, that was starting to wonder if she even stood a chance against Cagalli. Athrun and her, where after all engaged to be married, and it truly did seem like, Athrun was totally devoted to Cagalli. And she was seriously starting to doubt, that no matter what she did and how hard she tried, there was just no way, he would ever show and give her, the same kind of caring attention he would give Cagalli.

Just thinking about it, was all that was needed, to make a slightly sad look, appear in both of her eyes. While she wonder why in the world, she had to get a crush on a guy, that was clear already in-love with somebody else.

'Damn it! This really is annoying, why couldn't I have met him before that Athha girl did...!' She thought displeased, while thinking about how happy the two of them had seemed, when they where together. And if it had not been because of her own crush, on the blue hair man, she would be slightly tempted to admit, that the two of them did make a cute couple.

Yet before she could think too long about that, she quickly shook those annoying thoughts away. The red haired woman wasn't ready to give up just yet, she was still quite determined, to try and win Athrun's heart, away from the blond princess. It was however quite clear to her that she had a very tough battle ahead of her.

And it was somewhat clear to her, that she had quite the battle ahead of her.

It was actually a bit of a shame, that she could not use her mobile suit in a fight such as this, if she was using her ZAKU she was confidence in her victory, it was after all much more powerful, then Cagalli's Duel Rouge, or whatever it was call.

Yet while all of those things was rummaging through her head, she made the decision to answer her little sister's last question, it was not like they could spend the rest of the day, standing around out there like this, dreaming about what they where the hoping the future would bring.

"I don't really think you have to worry about Athrun being sick Meyrin, he is properly just a bit stressed out with everything that has been going on lately, first we had that whole Lodonia mission. Then we got attack by the Gaia and yesterday it was the Freedom!" Lunamaria explained. While thinking briefly about how unbelievable powerful the Freedom was, and the person piloting the blue wing mobile suit. As far as she knew, the pilot of the Freedom was suppose to be a very good friend of Athrun's, which most likely made the whole thing even harder on the Saviour pilot.

Yet even true, she honestly did feel somewhat sorry for Athrun, over the fact, that he had to fight against somebody. Which was obviously a very important person in his life, she still continued on with her explanation.

"And when you really think about it sis, that's definitely more then enough, to make just about everybody feel ready to collapse in exhaustion. Which is actually why I think it was good thing, we got delay here, thanks to the large amount of damage the Freedom did to the mobile suit forces at this base" Lunamaria said. Knowing that it would most likely take a few days, before this place was once more fully operational, and able to put up a fight incase it got attack, as thing where right now, it would be a pretty easy target to take out, with most of it's mobile suit forces either headless or armless.

Now that she was give it some thought, it was actually a bit amazing, that the Freedom was able to take out that many machines without hurting the pilots, which made her wonder slightly, what kind of training the guy inside the Freedom had gone through, to get that good. But the only thing she could say for sure, was that it had without a doubt taken him a very long time, to develop skills like that.

And it honestly made her wonder, if she could get even half as good as that guy, and just thinking about, what she had seen of the small fight between Athrun and him yesterday, made her strive to improve her own piloting skills. And that was the reason why, she made the decision, to go down to the simulator to train, once the two of them where done visiting Athrun.

Yet she was standing there, thinking about all of that, she didn't noticed that her last few words had pull Meyrin back to reality, and that she was now looking over at her with a somewhat thoughtful expression on her face.

"You might just be right about him being worn out sis, but I'm still worried about him. So lets hurry up and get going" the youngish of the two redheads said in a loud tone, that could be heard far and wide, while she saw her older sister nod a few times in agreement.

And with nothing else to say to each other at least for now, the two siblings continued onwards, towards their destination. That actually hadn't been that far away from where, they had been spending the last few minutes.

Once over by the door, Lunamaria instantly reached over and knocked a couple of times on it. Yet much to their disappointment, they didn't get any kind of response from in there. Pretty much the only thing, they could hear at the moment, was two male crew members, that was busy discoursing, just how long they where going to be stuck at this base. Apparently both of them agree on that it was quite tiresome being here with nothing to do.

Other then that there was no sign of life nearby, and once the two men disappeared further down the hall. The only thing that could be heard, was the two siblings soft breath, which actually sounded quite loud with nothing else around to make any kind of noise.

So after sharing a small look Luna again reach over and knocked on the door this time a bit harder then before. Yet just like the first time they still didn't get a answer from the sole inhabited of the room.

"Do you even think he is in there sis, maybe he is down in the hangar looking the Saviour over" Meyrin said, while thinking back to how fierce, the battle between the red mobile suit and the Freedom had been yesterday. She had actually been quite worried, that he had gotten seriously injury when she had seen the white mobile suit toss it's shield over in to the Saviour. It just looked so dangerous and violent, when the Freedom had done that, and she couldn't even describe how relieved, she had been, when she realized that he was not hurt at all.

"Hmm well he might be down there, but I highly doubt it, the Phase Shift armor should be more then capable of handling something like that. Yet it was properly very uncomfortable being inside the mobile suit when the Freedom's pilot did that. It most have been so damn loud. Kinda like sticking your head in to a drum, just before somebody hits it, with as much force as possible!" Luna said. Just as she tried to imagine how large a headache that gave Athrun, when his friend in the Freedom had pull of that little stunt. It frankly was the kind of thing that, would make one swallow more then a few aspirins, in the hope that they would at least reduce the pain, a tiny bit.

And Luna truly was happy, that she had not been in his place, when the shield had flew in to the side of the red transformable mobile suit.

Yet even as she stood there trying to figure out, how bad a headache Athrun had been having when he gotten back to the Minerva yesterday. She again reached out and knocked on the grey metal door, but just like the first two times they didn't get a reply.

Which once more, made the two girls look over at each other. "Should we just take, a small peek in there? To make sure that he is ok!" Meyrin asked. Her voice still contenting most of the concern from before. Just as she once more began, to wonder if the blue haired man was actually starting to get sick. If that was the case, it might be a good idea to tell the captain about it as soon as possible, so she knew what was going on and had the time to figure out what they should do about it.

Hearing her little sister ask that. Lunamaria again turned her attention towards the entrance, to Athrun's room.

"Hmm well I know I for one, would feel kinda bad if we just left, while there is something wrong with him in there. So it would most likely be best that we follow your suggestion Meyrin and take a little peek, and if he is just sleeping we can always leave again right after!" The oldest of the two girls said. As she hurried gave the small button to open the door a light push.

Which instantly made the metal door fly open. So now both of them could see, the person they had been search for, resting calmly on his bed. And just the sight of the one they both harbour a crush on, sleeping so peaceful, was enough to make each of the girls smile softly.

But that was only until, he slowly turned over and mumbled out a few short word. "Cagalli...you...look so pretty...like that...!" He said, then continued sleeping soundly.

Not realizing just how upset his last somewhat incomprehensible sentences, had made his two unannounced visits. It wasn't like he actually knew that both of Hawke siblings was in there. So it was not really his fault that he hurt their feelings, by calling out after his fiancée's name.

Yet as they stood there watching him. Neither of the siblings really knew how to react at first, they where both feeling somewhat letdown, that it was the blond haired woman, that he was talking about in his sleep. It did after all make it pretty obvious to both of them, just how much he truly cared about her.

And it took a couple of very long tense minutes, before Lunamaria was able to regain enough of her composure, to realize that it was properly best if the two of them didn't linger around in there much longer.

So still far from happy about what they had just heard, only a few short moment ago, the older sibling slowly reach, over and softly grabbed on to her little sister's left arm. "We should hurry and get out of here Meyrin, before he realizes that we are in here!" She said, then gently began leading her still somewhat stun little sister back over to the still open door.

Once outside again. Lunamaria turned and looked back at her only family member, on board the Minerva. "Are you all right Meyrin? Hearing him call out for Cagalli like that, definitely wasn't something I wanted to hear!" The ZAKU pilot said. Before taking a glance, over at the now once again shut door, which the two of them had just step out of a few seconds ago.

Hearing that question. Meyrin turn her downwards gaze over at her big sister. "I'll be fine sis! I guess that I was just a bit surprise, by him doing that. Yet it's not like I didn't know how close he and miss Cagalli are. But I most admit that I am a little jealous. I kinda wish that I had somebody in my life, that care so utterly much about me, that he couldn't even get me out of his mind while sleeping" the youngish sister said in a slightly dreamy tone.

Smiling slightly at that. Lunamaria slowly moved over and put both of her arms up around her sister, hugging her gently.

"I really don't think, you have to worry about that Meyrin, I'm certain that someday you are going to meet just the right person, that wouldn't be able to keep his eyes or his hands of you" Lunamaria said, in a somewhat confident voice, while stroking her sister's back in a soft and caring manner.

Yet before she could do that for long. Meyrin slowly backed away from her and looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "You do realize sis, when you are saying it like that. You are making it sound like he is going to be a complete pervert, that's not the type of guy I want!" She said firmly, and with a tiny hint of displeasure, in both of her eyes.

Thinking briefly about her own words, Lunamaria quickly realized, that they could very easily be misunderstood, which made her laugh softly. "Ok, I'm sorry about my bad choice of words, but I'm still absolutely certain that you are going to meet just the right person, soon or later Meyrin!" The older girl insured.

Which made Meyrin smile slightly, as she nodded a few times, truly hoping that Luna was right about what she had just told her. "Thank you sis, you don't know how much your words means to me. Now then do you want to go with me back to the mess hall, and get some ice cream? I could really use some of that stuff right about now!" She explained, while trying to decide what flavor she wanted.

Also feeling a bit of a urge for something sweet, Luna immediately agreed to her sister's proposal. So with no more reason to stand around out there, the two Hawke sisters, began making their way back in the same direction, they had came from not long ago.

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Meanwhile elsewhere on the ship. Shinn was sitting beside Stella's bed down in the sick bay, gently combing her soft blond hair. The girl had been comatose since she was brought on board a few days ago.

And seeing as the ship's doctor, had told him when he had arrive that there was no real change in her condition. He was seriously starting to fear that she would never wake up again.

Yet when he had asked the doctor about that, the man had been somewhat reluctant to give him a reply, it was almost like the man was trying to hide something from him, and it did not help that every single medical report about the girl was delivered directly to the captain.

As much as he respect the woman and was willing to follow most of her orders, he already knew what she thought about his tight friendship with Stella. She had even told him shortly after Stella had been pull out of the Gaia, that it would properly be wise for him not to get too attach to the comatose girl, seeing as she was a enemy pilot and that she had already kill more then a few Zaft soldier, among them even Heine.

Yet when he had been told, that she was most likely one of the few survival Extendeds, from the completely disgusting facility, they had been at only a few short days ago. He had instantly forgiven Stella for everything she had done. Seeing as it wasn't her fault that the Earth Forces had done all of those terrible thing to her, she was innocent victim in all of this.

It was not like she had actually asked those damn bastards, to test out all of those drugs on her, and make her in to what she was now. In his eyes she truly had done nothing wrong. Unfortunately he was pretty much the only crew member who thought that. Everybody else saw the blond girl as a prisoner of war, and that really piss him off.

He just didn't get, why the others couldn't see, that everything she had done up until now was actually liked directly back to the Earth Forces. It was all their fault that the war had broken out in the first place, and that Stella had end up in this condition.

And even as he was sitting there continuously rubbing her hair, he once more swore, that they where going to pay for everything they had done to the girl, and if there was anybody out there, that even tried to get in his way, they could be damn sure, that he was going to tear them apart.

Yet as he was thinking about all of that, a friendly voice suddenly cut in to his highly hostile thoughts, about the very people that he was pretty much blaming for every damn thing that was happening in the world right now.

"Hey there Shinn any changes?" Rey asked, just as he stepped in to the room and slowly made his way over to the bed, where he instantly noticed, that the girl's face was cover by a thin layer of sweat, and that she was even more pale now then the last time he had seen her, which made it kinda obvious that she wouldn't get better anytime soon.

And if she actually ended up dying here, Shinn might just lose most of his will to fight. Which meant that they had nothing to deal with Kira Yamato and the Freedom. And that made him decided, that once he was done in there, he was going to talk with the captain about transferring the girl, to a place where she could get whatever treatment she required to get better. It wasn't like the Minerva had the right kind of equipment, to handle something as dire as this.

So it would definitely be for the best, for the poor girl, that she got to a real hospital, or at least a place, where there was a doctor that could actually do something to help her out. It frankly didn't take a whole lot of medical experience, to figure out that the ship's doctor, had very few ideas about how to treat the girl.

And if anybody asked Rey about it, he could honestly say that he found it kinda pathetic, that the man would keep of the facade and pretend that he knew something about what he was doing. If anything that properly just make her condition even worth.

Which definitely wasn't a good thing, there was no way they could afford to lose this girl just yet. They had to make sure that Shinn was in tiptop condition when the time came for him, to do battle with Kira Yamato.

And even if she should die from whatever illness she had, they just had to make certain that it was somewhere else, so Shinn wouldn't know anything about it. He was simply to vital a part, for his and Gilbert's idea to take out the Freedom.

So there was no way, they could not permit her to ruin the entire thing. She was without a doubt the biggest threat to the success of their plan, and if it somehow went wrong. He seriously doubt, they would get a second chance. So everything just had to be absolutely perfect, when the time came for Shinn, to put all of the training which he had gone through, these last many weeks to the test.

"I really don't know Rey, it doesn't seem like she is ever going to get better. She looks even worse now then she did yesterday, and that moron of a ship doctor could not even tie his own shoes if he actually concentrated on it!" Shinn said. Not bothering to hide, that he had very little respect left for that man, in his eyes he was always running around everywhere else, instead of treating Stella, like he was suppose to.

Hearing Shinn describe the doctor's abilities in such a way, the blond pilot couldn't help, but let out a small laugh. "I guess that's one way to put it Shinn. Yet once I'm done in here, I promise you that I'll immediately go down and speak with the captain about it. In my eyes it doesn't matter, what this girl has done, it just wouldn't feel right to leave her hanging, if we could do something to help her out!" Rey said. Just as he reach over, and gave Shinn's left shoulder a reassuring squeeze, to show the boy that he really meant what he had just said, after that he again looked over at the girl, that by now was breathing a bit harder then before.

And seeing how sweaty her entire face was right now, made him turned around and slowly make his way over to the sink, where he pick up a white soft cloth, which he instantly put under the faucet, and soaked it in the nice cold water. After doing that he softly twist the cloth, to get some of the superfluous liquid away.

Once that task was carried out, he again walked back over to the blond woman's bed, where he slowly reached down and carefully used the cloth, to dry away most of the sweat. He especially concentrated on getting her drench forehead cleaned off.

Seeing his best friend do that. Shinn smiled slightly. It was kinda nice to see that there was somebody else other then himself, that could be kind to Stella, here on the grey space ship.

"Thank you Rey, I really appreciated your help, with everything that has been going on lately, I just can't figure out a way to help her out. And it really doesn't help that everybody else, on the ship sees her as a prisoner and not the victim she truly is!" He said, deeply dissatisfied with the most of the crews, lack of interest, in the blond innocent girl's condition.

Hearing that Rey got a light thoughtful look in each of his eyes, as he slowly turned around and throw the used cloth back over in to the sink, where he had first found it. After that he again looked back at the Impulse's pilot.

"You can't really blame them for not trusting her Shinn, she was after all an enemy pilot, when she was brought on board. Yet perhaps when they have had a little time to get use to having her around, they might be able to better accept her!" The blond pilot reassured.

Then took a deep breath before he once again continued talking. "But now that we are discoursing, the very subject of who can be trusted. What is your opinion, on Athrun's performance yesterday, when he was going up against the Freedom gundam?" Rey asked. While taking a quick glance around, to make certain that there was nobody nearby that was listening in on their conversation.

Slightly taken back by that question, the dark haired teen lean back in his seat while he blinked a couple of times in confusion.

"Well to be honest Rey, I think it was kinda pathetic. He was just hanging there even when the Freedom had all of it's weapons stash away. I really don't get why the heck the Chairman let that guy join up again, and even made him a member of FAITH!" The boy said. For the first time ever, seriously wondering what in the world the Chairman could have been thinking about, when he given Athrun permutation to once more become a part of Zaft.

"If you ask me Rey, I honestly think that the Saviour's power, is wasted on a guy such as him. It would just have been so much better, if either you or Nicol had been the once chosen to pilot that machine. Not some dumb fool, who doesn't take down an enemy, when the opportunity is right in front of him!" The angry teen growled out. Completely and utterly pissed off over the fact, that the blue haired man, hadn't lifted a finger to stop the Freedom, when the white and blue mobile suit, had made it's escape from the area.

Nicol had at least tried, to stop the blue Orb Murasame from getting away. Yet it wasn't really that hard to tell, that the pilot of that machine, was quite good at long distance combat. And that was definitely not something, that the GOUF had been designed for. It was more a close ranger machine, then anything else. At least that was how it looked when Nicol was piloting, the sword and heat rod wielding yellow the machine.

Thinking briefly about what Shinn had just told him, regarding Athrun and his abilities to use the Saviour properly. Rey nodded slowly in understanding, while rubbing his chin in a thoughtful way. "I see what you mean Shinn. And you can be sure that I'll mention everything you told me to the Chairman, once I have the chance to talk with him again!" The blond teen said. He too had been frequently wondering, just how wise a decision it had been letting Athrun join up with Zaft again. In his eyes the blue haired teen, was almost as big a threat to their plans, as Kira Yamato was.

Unfortunately as things where now. Athrun was still quite useful which meant that there was no way that Gilbert wanted to get rid of him just yet.

But it was starting to become more and more obvious, that Athrun simply was far to attach to his fiancée Cagalli and the rest of the Archangel's crew. And as long as he kept having those feeling, he would never be completely loyal to the Chairman, like he was suppose to. Which meant that they either had to find a way, to make him forget about those emotions. Yet when one took a look at the boy's action up until now, that pretty much seemed impossible.

So they would most likely have to find a secondary way, to make absolutely sure, that Athrun Zala could not in anyway interfere in their plans, he was to put it simply far to dangerous a individual to have running around, if he was not fighting along side them.

And while still thinking about that and the things Shinn had just said. He slowly moved his gaze away from the floor, and over at the comatose girl.

"I better get going Shinn, now that things a relatively quiet around the ship. I'll see you later, once I'm done talking with the captain" The ZAKU pilot said, then turned around and walked slowly towards the exit of the room.

With Shinn looking after him the entire time. "Thank you Rey, and good luck!" He called out after his friend. Just before the door flew back shut after him, which made it kinda obvious, that he was not going to get a response from the slightly older teenage. Not that he cared all that much about that.

The only thing on his mind right now was the blond girl he cared so much about, so after watching the door for a few short seconds. He turned around and once more reached up and started to rub her soft hair.

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Meanwhile somewhere else very far away from the Minerva, and earth in fact.

Gilbert Durandal was sitting quietly in his office, obviously thinking quite hard about the report, his lover and the mobile suit team. Which had discovered the hijacked shuttle had just given him.

Not really all that surprising the Gaia gundam, had of course been removed from the small transport ship. Which could only mean that it had now become apart of the Eternal's mobile suit forces. With Andrew Waltfeld involved in this whole mess. It really was the most logical place, for that mobile suit to be now.

Unfortunately they had no real clues about the runaway pink space ship's whereabouts. Even true the Glasgow team was, searching high and low, for the small bunch of traitors. It truly did seem like that the Eternal and it's crew had once more succeed in evading Zaft's grasp.

Yet as serious a matter all of this truly was, there was something else occupying his mind at the moment, as he sat there looking down at the white queen on the chess board. Seriously wondering if Lacus Yamato as she was now call being out here was a beneficial thing for him. It definitely would be much easier, to remove the pink haired woman from existences, without the Archangel's crew or her husband around to protect her.

"Hmm maybe the two of them being apart like this, is a small blessing in disguise" he mumbled softly in a satisfied tone. Just before he moved his hand over, and picked up the white queen, then moved her to the left side of the board, so it was now standing quite far away from the white king, which up until now had actually been standing in such a position, that it actually seemed a bit like it had been guarding the queen this entire time.

And after rearranging a few more of the pieces. He slowly lean back in his chair, and looked up at the ceiling, now trying to figure out just how he could best use the pink haired woman's present out there to his own benefit. If he could somehow capture her, it would provide him with an almost perfect mean to manipulated with the Ultimate Coordinator.

Maybe she could even be used to lure the boy to his own death. It certainly was an idea that was worth going over, if Shinn somehow failed to take out the Freedom and the male Yamato, like he was suppose to.

And with that in mind, he made the decision that it was in his plans best interested that he told the leader of the Glasgow team, to focusing their attention on capturing the Eternal, once the ship was located, that way they would finally be able to bring all of those traitors to justice.

At least that was the excuse he was planing to use, for giving this order in the first places. He did not want anybody to know, that the sole reason why he wanted this, was so that he had an ace in the hold against Kira Yamato.

Love was after all a very powerful emotion, that could easily be turned and used against the very people, that was having those kind of feelings for each other.

Yet no matter how good the idea truly was. It didn't really matter if they couldn't find the Eternal, so that was definitely the first thing they had to do. Which he knew could be a very difficult task. Nobody seemed to know where to the Eternal had disappeared to, after the last war.

Yet one thing was certain, neither that ship or the Archangel could stay hidden forever. Soon or later they would show themselves again, especially since they obviously considered Zaft, as their enemy.

"Well I guess, that I just have to be a little patient for now" he whispered to himself.

Just before he began wondering about a subject, which he had already thought about more then a few times up until now. And that was how Kira Yamato and Lacus Clyne had meet each other, and how exactly they had ended up getting married of all things.

That most definitely was somewhat of a mystery in his eyes, that he could honestly, say that he would like very much to get some answers to. Yet that did seem to be impossible, at least at this moment in time.

To be continued.

I'll see all of you next year! Have a merry Christmas and a happy New Year.


	39. Chapter 39

I'm sorry for the delay with this chapter.

I actually had it finished at the begin of January, which was about the same time my PC decide to go completely haywire. Meaning that I suddenly couldn't turn the dumb thing on anylonger. And with all the problems I have been having with it over the years I quickly decide to buy a new one.

Which I'm sure you all know can be more then just a little expensive, and I didn't really have a whole lot of cash lying around after Christmas. So it took me quite a while to scrape the money together.

But anyway I hope you guys like this chapter! Let me know what you think.

Chapter 39

It had not been long since, Kira and Dearka had told Cagalli what they had said to Athrun yesterday. But saying that the blond woman had been grateful for their aid, in telling her fiancée about her pregnancy, was to say it mildly a serious understatement.

The first thing she had done when they had mention it to her, was to scream out that they where both idiots then throw a full can of soda after them.

Fortunately both of them had been fast enough on their feet to get away. Before the tin projectile could actually hit them, which had instantly resulted in Cagalli yelling out for the two of them to get back and accept their punishment. Not that any of the teens, had been dumb enough to do that. They had just kept on running with her chasing them around all over the Archangel.

And to make matters even worth, it wasn't just Cagalli that was hunting for them now, when Mayu had discover what was going on, she had immediately volunteered to help Cagalli out. And not wanting to miss a chance to teach her boyfriend a lesson or two, Miriallia had of course joined in too.

And knowing how utterly merciless and dangerous, the three foes chasing after them could be. The two pilots had made the decision to find a place to hide, at least until things calm down a bit.

Which was the reason why, Kira was now sitting in absolute silence, underneath one of the tables down in the mess hall, while his only ally in this mess was hiding out under another one, far to the left of him.

"Man talk about being cranky, how long do you think this is going to take Kira? She has been chasing us the last couple hours now. And this whole hid and seek thing is really starting to get old" Dearka complained. Just as he tried to stretch both of his legs, they where frankly starting to hurt quite a bit, after being stuck under this stupid table for so long.

Taking a short glance over at his fellow pilot from his hiding place. The male Yamato let out a small sound, which was most likely a combination between a laugh and a grunt, which did make it kinda obvious to Dearka, that the Freedom's pilot was just as bored and frustrated with this as he was.

"You know as well as I Dearka, that once Cagalli first gets angry she can keep it up for hours without slowing down at all. And she has been trying to find just the right excuse to beat up a few of the male gender. Apparently all of us are to blame for Athrun getting her pregnant!" Kira said in a unhappy tone. Just as he gave the closed seat a tiny kick, to get out a bit of the deep frustration he was feelin, over the mess his best 'friend' had brought him in. He really didn't get why it was Dearka and him that had to suffer, when all of this was mostly Athrun's and her own fault.

But as much as Kira would frankly like to ask, his short tempered sister about that. He was pretty certain that the only thing she would do, was shout out a couple of loud courses, then once more start chasing him around the ship.

And he honestly felt like he had gotten more then enough exercise today. He seriously did not want a repeat of the extremely hasty and overly exhausting sightseeing trip of the Archangel, which his 'kind' and 'loving' sister had forced him and Dearka out on, when they had given her the joyous news about them telling Athrun about the pregnancy.

Hearing his friend say those words to him, Dearka too let out a sound of unhappiness. "Ahhhhh damn it! What a bother, I just can't believe, that she freaked out like that, we where after all just trying to do her a favour. If I had know this was going to be the result, I would have made sure to be on the other side of the Archangel when you told her!" The man complained, properly a bit louder then he should, they where after all trying to hide down there.

Looking a bit at him. Kira too wondered if they could have found a better way, to tell Cagalli what they had done. Yet in the end he highly doubt that no matter what they had told her, she would still have react like this. It wasn't like she was trying all that hard, to keep it a secret, that she had been out after male blood the last few days.

And now that the two of them had clearly made a mistake in her eyes. She was most likely going to use it to her advantage, as long as she could, hopefully she would tire out eventually. He really didn't want to spend the next many days staying cooped up under this table.

"Well if you want to, you can just leave Dearka. But not to be spoilsport in anyway, I will strongly advise against it. With all of the mood swings she has been having recently, there really is no way of knowing, what kind of punishment she has in mind. But no matter what she is planing, I can say without lying, that there is no way in hell I want to try it out!" The Freedom pilot said, while looking up at the table above him.

Seriously not happy with the knowledge that it was not safe to leave just yet. The Murasame pilot again let out a deep displeased growling sound. "Athrun is so going to pay for this, once he gets back here. All of this is his fault!" Dearka said. Already considering, how much payback Athrun would have to go through, the next time they saw him, or when he decided that he had gotten enough of hanging out with Zaft.

One thing was definitely certain, it was going to take a very long time, for their blue haired buddy, to make up for all of this suffering and trouble, he had brought upon them. As much as the former Buster pilot, liked experience new things, playing hide and seek under a table, while completely pissed of pregnant woman who was searching all over the place for them, wasn't really the most enjoyable moment in his life.

Truth be told there was a whole bunch of stuff he would rather do. Then sit around in here and wait, for the female Grim Reaper to find them. Especially since he knew, that it would only be a matter of time before she was bound to discover their little hiding place, and that was honestly not something he was looking forward to, he just hoped that his lovely girlfriend would step in, and protect him if Cagalli got to violent.

Yet as he was thinking about all of that. Kira had another subject making it's way through his mind, mainly what kind of terrible vengeance, they where going to inflict on Athrun once he regain his senses.

But other then a nice ice cold bucket of water or two, he really didn't have many ideas. It could not be denied that he wasn't as good a prankster as Mayu. So perhaps it would be a wise idea, to ask the eleven-year-old girl for advise, once Cagalli was finally done on her warpath.

It would shock him quite a bit, if the girl hadn't thought of someway to annoy Athrun. And if she didn't have a plan for anything now, he was sure that it wouldn't take her long to get one. She was after all extremely good at finding just to right thing, to get on other people's nerves.

Something which she showed quite frequently, whenever she was out to prank Mr Murdoch, it was actually a bit incredible that she was still able to find new ways to bug the Archangel's chief engineer.

So if they asked her about it, she was properly more then able, to come up with a few ways, to bother his future brother-in-law. And while those thought was making their way through his mind, he once more turned his attention back towards Dearka and was just about to ask him if he wanted to get in on this too. Yet just as he got his mouth open. They both suddenly heard a familiar female voice heading in their direction, which was more then enough to make him, squeeze his mouth shut again.

Just as his sister's lovely voice call, out and asked, where those two morons was hiding, and that they better come out and show themselves, so they could each get the punishment, they so rightly deserve.

Hearing her yell out something like that. Kira took a small glance away from the door and over at Dearka, where he instantly noticed that the other pilot was ready to get out of there in a hurry, if there was a need for it.

And even true it was properly a very wise idea, to make their withdrawal from this place without resisting the girls.

The chance of them getting safely away without any kind of injury, was somewhat slim. Seeing as there was only one way in and out of the mess hall. So if any of the girls noticed that they where hiding out in there, they would most definitely have to think on their feet, to find a way to get out of there without ending up in Cagalli's evil grasp. Whatever the blond girl had in mind as punishment for them telling Athrun about the pregnancy, one would most certainly have to be a bit of a masochist to look forward to it.

It was just about that time, when Kira saw his fellow pilot send him a small signal, which made it completely clear to him, that if the girls got any closer, then they should move over to the entrance so they would run the risk of being trap in there.

Being under a table like this, certainly didn't mean that they where as well hidden, as the Blitz had been, when it had it's Mirage Colloid activated. And knowing what kind of danger they where facing. The male Yamato nodded a single time in agreement.

Just before the two pilots, slowly made their way over to the entrance. Each of them ready to run of full speed, at the first sign of Cagalli Yula Athha, and her two wicked companies.

Fortunately it did not take very long, before the voices of the three women slowly disappeared in the distance. Quite obviously heading in the direction of the Archangel's bridge. Apparently the small female army believed, that the two men was hiding out up there.

Yet before they disappeared completely, each of them heard Mayu's voice shout out, that if they weren't down in the hangar. Then the bridge would properly the best place for those two to hide, it wasn't like there was a whole lot of of people up there that could give them away.

After that both pilots stood there quietly, each of them slightly expecting that this was some sort of trap. Yet after a couple of tense minutes, Dearka slowly turned his attention over towards his friend.

"If they already have looked for us down in the hangar, it really would be the best place for us to go right now. I kinda doubt, that they would bother to search for us down there again, anytime soon" The former Buster pilot said, while taking a quick look out in to the hall, for the three women. But they where not anywhere to be seen.

Thinking briefly about what Dearka had just suggest. Kira had little trouble understanding the logic in his words. "Ok you are properly right Dearka. So lets not waste anymore time standing around here, it would most likely be best, if we got down to the hangar, before they can finish checking out the bridge for us!" The brown haired man said. Seriously wondering, what in the world the three girls was up to now. But as long as there was no sign of them, they should be relativity safe.

So after each of them had taken one extra look around the halls. They began making their way down to the ship's hangar, each of them still somewhat worried, that this was some kind of trap, which the women had put together to corner them down there.

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Yet as the two pilots was seeking refugee down with all the mechanics.

The three women hunting for them, was getting closer and closer to the bridge. Once there Miriallia reached out and opened the door, which pretty much immediately made her blond ally race in to the room, in the hopes of finding their targets in there.

Unfortunately there was no sign of them in there, but that did not mean that her loud yet swift entrance didn't have an effect on somebody. The captain of the ship who had been sitting alone up there, until now gave a small leap in her seat as she dropped her book on the floor.

And after using a second or two to get over the minor scare short temper girl had just given her. Murrue slowly reached down and picked up her book. Then looked over at the Orb Chief Representative with a slightly puzzled expression on her face. As she felt a somewhat annoyed, that she had been interrupted, just after she had reached one of the more exciting parts of the book.

"The three of you really don't have enough to do, if you have the time to run around and scare people like that" She said to them. Before taking a small look between the three girls, honestly wondering what they where up to. Her daughter had after all, been corn as the Archangel's first prankster queen. So it would not really have surprised her overly much. If she had been the one to enter the bridge, in the extreme noisy manner Cagalli had just done.

So to say it middly Cagalli's actions just now did frankly confuse Murrue Ramius quite a bit. She knew the blond princess well enough to know, that the only once she would usually played pranks on. Was the people who had somehow succeed, in pissing her of in someway. And as far as Murrue knew she was not one of them.

But it was the last of the girls, that was the biggest mystery in all of this. Miriallia was simply far to mature, to do something like that, the only person the brown haired girl pretty much liked to tease, was Dearka. So that of course could only mean, that in some way or another. The blond Murasame pilot was involved in this.

The big question now was however, what foolish thing he had done this time, to actually piss all three of them off like this.

"Now, would one of you mind telling me what this is about? It's pretty clear, that the three of you, where expecting to find somebody else up here" Murrue said in a scolding tone.

Which did remind Mayu slightly about the tone of voice, her mother would usually only take, whenever she had done something really bad, and she wanted her to tell the honest truth about it. Like that time, when she had blow up a whole dozen of eggs, in their microwave back home. That truly had been funny as hell until her mom had gotten home and discover what she had done.

What had happened after that, had not been nearly as amusing, as the experiments she had conducted with the kitchen appliances. Apparently her mother did not want her to be a scientist, like aunty Erica. Not that she had ever seen the brown haired woman, actually mess around with microwave oven like she had done. She just kinda figured, that every great mind had to start of somewhere.

And it honestly hadn't hurt, that seeing the eggs explode one after another had been very entertaining, and pretty much the only person in the house, who hadn't found it at least just a bit funny, had been her mother.

Everybody else had given the whole thing a small laugh or two.

Especially big brother Dearka and grandpa Waltfeld, had talked about her little experiment for quite a while after. Much to her mother's big annoyance, she had not wanted those two idiots encouraging her, to do something like that again.

Yet when Mayu had seen, how much time it had taken to clean the microwave, she had quietly promise herself, not to make those kind of experiments again anytime soon. But that certainly didn't mean, she couldn't find other ways to cause trouble for the people around her.

She did however not get long to think about that, before they all heard Cagalli let out a deep breath, as she stood there looking down at the floor, with an unreadable expression covering her face.

"Well the reason why we are up here, is because we where kinda hoping, that Kira and Dearka would be here. There is a matter or two, that I would seriously like to discourse with those two morons!" She said. And without even realizing it, she made a light cracking sound with her left hand, which made it kinda obvious to the three other women, that this was quite serious.

Hearing her say all of that. Murrue roll her eyes a single time, as she sigh loudly. "Ok what in the world did they do now? If it's just something minor that can be result with them giving you an apology, then I would really prefer that you handle the entire affair like that Cagalli. I do not want the whole crew in an all out prank war. It's not like we don't already have somebody to liven things up around here!" She said.

Before taking a short glance over at her daughter, who tried her best to look innocent, and like she had no idea about, what her mother was talking about. And seeing her behave like that, only served to make Murrue sigh loudly one more time.

As she again turned her puzzled gaze back towards Cagalli. Now just waiting for the young woman, to give her some kind of response.

It did however take more then a few long minutes, before the blond teen finally moved her attention away from the floor, and back towards the captain. Yet even after doing that, she still didn't say anything.

And one look at her face, was all that was needed for most people to figure out, that she had a lot on her mind right now. And just as Murrue was begin to doubt that she would get, any kind of answer from the Orb princess.

Cagalli slowly opened her mouth and started speaking in a far away tone. "Those two idiots, told Athrun something yesterday, that I really wanted to tell him. So now I need to find them, so I can properly thank them" She growled out, as she again made a small threatening gesture, with her hands.

Still not totally getting what this was about, the Archangel's captain raised her left eyebrow slightly.

"I see, but if it's not to much to ask Cagalli, would you mind telling us what exactly they said that was so bad? That makes you act like you are planing on beating both of them half to death" Murrue said, while looking directly in to the girl's eyes.

Again looking down at the floor. Cagalli once more used a few minutes, to think about a response, yet in the end she made the decision, that it was properly best that Murrue knew about what was going on.

"Well the thing is...they said that...Well actually...they told him I was pregnant!" The girl shout out loudly, giving Murrue and even larger shock then when she had first enter the bridge.

Completely and utterly taken back by Cagalli's words. The twenty-eight-year-old woman leaned back in her chair and looked up at the girl, with her eyes almost as big as dinner plates, and her mouth hanging fully open in disbelief.

And just seeing the expression she had on her face, made it pretty clear, that she wasn't totally sure, that she had actually heard the girl right. "Please don't take this in a negative way Cagalli, but please tell me you are kidding! Now isn't really the best of time for a child to be brought in to this world. There is just no way of telling how long this war is going to last!" Murrue finally said. Not once taking her eyes away from the Orb Chief Representative, that was obviously a bit unhappy with her words.

But just as Murrue was starting to think, that the teen was going to shout something about her being mistaken, and that everything was going to be all right, she let out a deep sigh instead.

"It's true Murrue, I really am pregnant. I stole three pregnancy test from the infirmary yesterday, and they all came up positive. I realize better then all of you that now is far from a good time for something like this. But there is nothing I can do about it, and even if there was. I would never agree to it. I have never liked the idea of abortion, so I'm going to keep the kid no matter what!" The blond haired girl said in a determined tone.

Just before she began playing with her engagement ring, which was a sign that she missed the person who had given it to her a lot at the moment. Not that anybody up there could blame her for that.

Yet while she was doing that, Murrue used the time to go over everything, the blond woman had just told them. And even true she did not really show it at first, deep inside she was generally happy for both Athrun and Cagalli.

"I'm not in anyway saying that the two of you shouldn't keep the child Cagalli. I just want you to realize how big a responsibility that is laying in front of you. We are in the middle of a war. Which we have pretty much no idea about when will end, and that's definitely not going to make raising a child any easier. Yet you can be sure Cagalli, that I'll do everything I can to help you out, and I'm sure that the rest of the crew will do the same!" Murrue said.

Then slowly stood up from her seat, where she gently pulled the confused eighteen-year-old woman in to a gentle hug, which finally allowed Cagalli, to let go of the deep stress and frustration she had been feeling the last many days.

And it was only shortly after, when the girl let out a big sob, as she stood there crying softly in to the older woman's shoulder.

Ever since the whole throwing up thing had started a few weeks ago, she had just been so confused about what she was suppose to do now.

So there was just no way, that the girl could deny, how relieved she felt to know, that the people who cared about her, wanted to give her their support, and help her through all of this. It was just so nice to hear, that she did not have to handle all of this on her own.

It was just about the same time, when she felt somebody place a hand on her left shoulder, which made her turn around, and look back at the person standing behind her, where she saw Miriallia.

"I know that I for one, is really looking forward to see you and Athrun's child! I'm sure that the two of you are going to be wonderful parents. And you do know that the reason why, Kira and Dearka told you future husband about the pregnancy, was because they where both hoping, that it would help him make up his mind about coming back!" The brown haired girl said, while thinking back to everything Dearka had told her yesterday when they got in to their bed.

But she didn't stay silence for long before she again continued talking. "Dearka has told me twice already, that he is really looking forward becoming an uncle, so that he can play with the kid" Miriallia said. As she thought back to how cute, he had been when he told her that. Seeing as Dearka himself could be quite childish at times, he was quite good at keeping children entertain.

And she had even suggest to him once in the past, that if he ever got tired of being a mechanic, he should go help out at reverend Malchio's place. Seeing as all of the kids there, pretty much loved him, because of his nutty behaviour. And to tell the honest truth, she kinda liked it too. It was just so cute when he was either playing soccer with them or just plain tag.

Yet in the end, it didn't really matter all that much what kind of game they played. Both him and the kids always end up having a good time, whenever he was around to act, like a nutty cartoon character, that had just escaped from it's show.

She did however not get long to think about, how sweet her boyfriend was, whenever they visited reverend Malchio, when suddenly Cagalli's loud voice brought her happy thoughts, to an end.

"Well no offense to you or Dearka, but your boyfriend is a much bigger idiot, then usual when he is around kids!" The blond woman said

Feeling somewhat uncertain about the idea, of having the former pilot of the Buster around her kid to much. She honestly didn't want her son or daughter, to grew up and behave, almost exactly like Dearka.

And a small part of her highly doubt, that she would be able to handle raising a kid like that.

Yet as all of those, somewhat frightening and unpleasant thoughts, was making their way through her mind. Miriallia's next few words, did help calm her down quite a bit.

"Yeah, I know that he can be somewhat of a fool from time to time. But he is my fool, and you definitely can't deny Cagalli, that he is just about perfect for the whole crazy and funny uncle role. For some reason I always felt like, every child should have at least one of those!" She said, with a small smile on her face.

Thinking briefly about that. Cagalli couldn't help but smile a bit too. "I guess you are right Mir. But I do wonder what Kira thinks, about all of this, he hasn't really said much about it yet!" The blond woman said. Not even realizing that she had been after her brother quite a bit recently, which kinda made it impossible, for him to really show, how he felt about the whole matter.

Seeing the slightly disappointed look in Cagalli' eyes, the brown haired teenage, gave her friend's shoulder a light squeeze.

"Each of us here knows, how far Kira will go to protect the people her care about. And according to what Dearka told me when they got back yesterday, he is quite angry at Athrun, and is acting much more like an over protective big brother then usual!" Miriallia said.

While briefly trying to image, how it had looked, when Kira had hurl the Freedom's shield, right in to the side of the red mobile suit, which she had only seen a couple of times now.

But before she could give it much thought, Cagalli let out a loud unhappy growling sound. "I am happy, that he is worried about me, but he shouldn't be going around behaving like an over protective big brother, he is after all the youngish one of us!" She said angrily, before crossing both of her arms, in front of her chest in a deeply displeased manner.

Yet even while doing that, she could not hide the small smile on her face, it really was nice to know that her brother was looking out for her. "I have been kinda mean to both him and Dearka too the last few days, so I better make sure to give them an apology the next time I see them" the girl said, obviously ashamed of her wicked behave the last few days.

But neither Murrue or Miriallia had the chance to say anything to that, before the youngish person up there cut in to the conversation, asking the one question she had been wondering about, since she heard a few minutes ago that big sister Cagalli was pregnant.

"So what are you going to name it big sis? What about Misa or Sayako?" She asked loudly, obviously expecting the child to be a girl, not that it could be told at this present moment in time.

But one look at the expression Mayu had on her face, was pretty much all Cagalli need, to tell that the eleven-year-old, was overly excited about this, and was really looking forward to help take care of the baby.

Which really made Cagalli feel warm inside, she truly was delighted to know, that the little girl that she consider, as a younger sister was so excited and eager, to help out, once the baby was born.

"I do kinda like the name Sayako, but I haven't really given it much thought yet Mayu, and you never know if it's going to be a boy!" She said, then reached over and gently rubbed Mayu's short brown hair.

Realizing that Cagalli was perhaps right about it being a boy, Mayu got a somewhat displeased look in her eyes.

"Yeah well I want a little sister, you can always get a boy the next time!" The girl said, actually making it sound like to Cagalli, that Athrun and her, was going to have an entire army of kids, and that they where going to have all of them, at exactly the same time.

And that wasn't really a pleasant thought in Cagalli's mind. She had never tried giving birth before, but from what she had heard it was suppose to hurt like hell, which wasn't really something, she was looking forward to with great expectation.

Fortunately she still had a lot of time, to try and get use to the idea.

"I guess we just have to wait and see what it's going to be. But never mind that now, lets go down and get something to eat. I'm really hungry, after running around all over the Archangel, after those two imbeciles" She said, just as her stomach let out a loud growling sound, that could clearly be heard all over the bridge.

Not really finding the need to object to Cagalli suggestion, about getting some food down in to their tummies, the four women began slowly making, their way over to the door.

Which meant that it did not take long, before the light was turn off, and the bridge was completely silence and empty, for human activities.

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It was many hours later.

When Kira was laying on his and Lacus bed, looking straight up at the ceiling. With Lacus and even Haro gone, the room did feel kinda empty and lonely right now.

The only other sign of life in there, was Birdy who was sitting all by himself on the back of the seat, Kira would usually use, whenever he had some work that needed to be done on his laptop.

Unfortunately he didn't really have anything to do right now. Which meant that the young man, was actually slightly bored at the moment, to be honest it was only now that Lacus was so far away, that he realized just how use he had gotten to having her around.

Usually at this late hour, she would be laying right beside him either reading or already fast asleep, and he realized that it was definitely going to take him some time to once more get use to sleeping by himself.

"I didn't actually think, that I had gotten so addicted, to having her beside me at night!" He thought out loud. Just before he slowly reached out to pink up, the small black remote to the television.

And without even bothering to move his head from the pillow, he turned on the device, which instantly started talking in the background, not that he was paying much attention to it.

But he did realize after a moment or two, that it was some kind of talk show, where two so call experts was discoursing quite loudly, when the war was going to end.

And not really wanting to hear them argue like that. He hurried pressed the mute button a single time, then throw the remote down on the bed, making sure that it was still in his reach, if he felt like changing the canal.

Yet even with the TV flashing swiftly through one picture after another in the background. It did not take long, before both his tired eyes fell shut, and he drifted off in to a peaceful slumber.

He did however not get a whole lot of time in dreamland, before somebody knocked quite loudly on the door, which almost instantly pull him back out of his slumber and made him sit up half way on the bed, where he quickly took a look around the room, with an utterly bewildered expression on his face.

Obvious having no idea about what had interrupted his sleep, and it was only when the person outside, again knocked on the door to his room. That he finally realized to his big annoyance, what was going on.

It had taken him quite some time, to fall asleep this evening, and he could honestly say that he would much rather have continued with that activity. Then being forced to have a long conversation with whoever was out there.

But even as he sat there, slightly hoping that the person who had disturb his sleep, would just go away, there was yet another hard knock on the metal door, this time even louder then before. Which was enough to make, the tired mobile suit pilot grumble out a few courses. Apparently the noisy individual, who was clearly having a lot of fun, pretending that his door, was a drum of some kind, wasn't planing to leave anytime soon.

And when he heard a fourth knock, he could not help but let out a deep displeased sound, before he opened his mouth and asked who was out there, frankly hoping that by answering the door, he hadn't doom himself for an hour long discussion, with his somewhat unwanted visitor.

And he felt even more displeased and uncertain, about the situation once he heard, his sister's voice from the other side of the door. "It's me Kira! Can I please come in so we can talk for a bit?" She asked in a kind tone.

But even true it was a bit of a relief for him, that she did not sound mad anymore. He still wasn't totally sure that he actually believed, that talking was the only thing on her mind.

He honestly did not feel up to taking yet another one, of his short tempered sister's extremely exhausting exercises trips around the Archangel, if there was anyway he could avoid it. One of those pair day, was definitely more then enough for him.

Yet when she asked one more time, if it was all right for her to come in. He let out a long breath, while wondering if his reply to the question, was going to backfire on him, and give Cagalli the long awaited opportunity to get even with him, for telling Athrun that she was pregnant.

"Ok do come in sis, but please don't start anything I'm totally exhaust" he said, while trying to keep back the enormous loud yawn, which had been treating to leave his mouth, the last couple of seconds.

But as he was concentrating on that, the door to the room flew open, and his sister stepped inside. Where he pretty much instantly noticed the overly cranky glare she had in both of her eyes.

That alone made him regret slightly that actually told her voluntarily to come in. But just as he was about ready to leap up full speed, from his comfortable location on the bed, and try and find someway past the blond girl and out of the room.

The look in her eyes soften more then a bit, and she let out a light giggle.

"Heh heh...That was fun! You should have seen the look on your face!" She said in a tone, that made it completely obvious to the worn out Coordinator, that she was in a good mood right now.

Something he was quite frankly very relieved about. It was reassuring for him to know, that there was no hostile intention behind his sister's visit, and that it was not necessary for him to leave the bed, to avoid whatever punishment, she had plan on giving him early today.

And knowing that there was no real danger at least for the moment. He moved back and once more rested his head on the pillow behind him. "So what are you doing here at this hour Cagalli?" He asked, trying hard not to show her how tired he really was right now.

Realizing that she had most likely woken him up, when she started beating down his door. Cagalli couldn't help feel slightly guilty, as she wonder if it was best to wait with the apology till tomorrow.

But in the end she decided that now that she had woken him up. She might as well just get it over and done with as quickly as possible, so she could leave and let him get back to sleep.

"I just want to say that I'm sorry, I have been a little mean to you, the last couple of days Kira. But with Athrun gone, and with me being pregnant. I can't even describe how stressed out I feel" she said, while getting comfortable at the foot of the bed, looking up at her brother, waiting a bit impatiently to hear what he had to say about her apology.

And even true Kira could not deny, that he was slightly tempt to say something sarcastic back, like her being a little mean was a serious understatement.

But now that she was finally back in a good mood. He did not think it would be a clever move on his part, to test just how thin her patient was right now. He truly did want to see Lacus again someday in the future.

"It's all right Cagalli, I'm sorry about telling him. I just wanted to help you guys out. But I guess that in the end, I did more far harm then good!" He said, with a guilty look in both of his purple eyes.

Just as he looked away from her and down in to his lap, thinking back to what his friend's reaction had been, when he had told him about the whole pregnancy thing.

Yet the only thing he knew for certain, after his little fight with the Saviour, was that Athrun was more then just a bit confused. Like he actually had no idea about how Cagalli had gotten pregnant in the first place.

Not that Kira was going to tell his sister about that, he might be completely and utterly piss off at Athrun right now. But he did not want to bring him in even more hot water, with Cagalli then he already was.

It was just about that time, when he felt Cagalli place a hand on his shoulder. "It's all right Kira, I would be lying if I said, that I wasn't still a bit angry at you two fools for interfering in our relationship, but you did do it with the best intention in mind. So I'll forgive both of you!" The young woman said, then stretch both of her arms up over her head, while letting out a loud yawn.

Which did make it kinda obvious that she was just as tired as he was. "Ok Cagalli, I promise not to stick my nose in you guys relationship again. But I still do feel a bit like beating the crap out of Athrun, the next time I see him. I just don't get why he can't come to his senses, after everything we told him about both Zaft's assassination attempt on Lacus, and you being pregnant!" He said in a displeased tone.

Hearing that Cagalli looked a bit thoughtful. "I guess you can beat him up a bit if that makes you feel better, just don't kill him Kira, there is no way he is getting out of helping with kid that easy!" She chuckled with a small wicked smirk on her face, as she stood up from the bed, and got ready to leave the room again, so her brother could go back to sleep.

Slightly surprise Kira too let out a small laugh. "I wasn't really planing on taking it that far Cagalli!" He explained to her, realizing that she was just joking around at the moment, which was actually a nice change from the angry mood, she had been in the last many days.

Still chuckling softly Cagalli stepped over to the door.

"That's good to hear Kira, I am planing on make him change the baby's diaper, the first five or six months after it's born!" The blond woman said, in a tone that made it kinda hard to tell, if she was actually serious.

But the entire thought about Athrun being forced, to do something like that, was more then enough, to make Kira laugh slightly again. "That's a very mean punishment sis. I'm kinda looking forward to see how you are going to convince him to do that" the Freedom pilot said.

Grinning slightly at him, Cagalli reached over and opened the door again.

"I haven't really thought of a way to do that yet Kira. But I'm sure, that there is something that could persuade him to do it. Now then I better get going I'm totally worn out, the only thing I really want to do right now is go to my room and sleep for a few hours!" She said.

Nodding a single time in understanding to that Kira laid his head back down on the pillow. "I see, I'll see you tomorrow sis!" He called out to her, as Cagalli gave him a big smile.

"Count on bro, good-night!" She said loudly, before she stepped out of the room, still with that big smile on her face. She really was happy, that things had work out like they had, and that she had been able to apologize to Kira.

Once gone the young man closed his purple eyes again, and it did not take very long, before he once more, slowly drifted off to sleep, still with the small television on in the background.

To be continued.


	40. Chapter 40

Chapter 40

It was early morning in the park, not that far away from where the Minerva was being prep to leave.

But even true there wasn't really all that many people around there right now, a lonely man with a full grey beard a old black coat and a ugly hat that frankly did match the coat pretty well. Was sitting by himself underneath a tree.

And right in front of the poor looking man, was a thick blanket spread out, where there laid a few nice looking paintings and a bunch of cheap jewelry. Which made it seem like to those few people, that noticed him. That he was only there to sell some of his items, in an attempt to earn a little cash.

Yet what Kazuma Tokai's real objektive was in the park. Was quite far from trying to get his hands, on a couple of bucks.

What the Orb soldier, had actually been sitting around in this park for, the last couple of days. Was to keep a narrow eye on the grey Zaft space ship. Which was something that was pretty easy to do, from this location.

And thanks to his disguise, there was not one Zaft soldier, who had been by his little shop, that had suspect what he was really up too. They had pretty much all thought, that his only reason for being there, was to try and get a little money.

Properly the only thing Kazuma did not like about this assignment, other then the fact that not one girl gave him a second look in this getup. Yet what really got on his nervous, was the beard, it scratch like hell.

Yet fortunately for him, it didn't really seem like he was going to be forced to wear the fake beard, much longer, with all the work presently going on, over and by the Minerva. It was pretty obvious, that it wouldn't be long now. Before the space ship would depart.

He just hoped that they wouldn't head of in the direction, which he thought they would. If they did that, the ship would head directly towards the place where the Orb fleet, and the Earth Forces fleet was waiting for them.

And that could mean that the ship's crew, had a tough battle ahead of them.

Which it might just be necessary for them to interfere in again, hopefully this time around, Lady Cagalli could figure out someway, to convince the Orb forces to head back home.

Unfortunately as long as that bastard to Yuna Roma Seiran was leading them. It was very unlikely that they would even bother to take the time, and listen to her. Even true it could not be denied, that she was their rightful leader.

"Damn it. If I ever get my hands on that moron to Yuna, he is definitely going to regret getting our proud country in to all of this mess. He might say that this it's best for Orb to fight with the Earth Forces. But as long as I haven't seen any proof of that, he can go to hell!" He muttered angrily. Before he reached out and picked up a small bracelet from the blanket.

And after playing with it for a few seconds. He instantly snap the cheap piece of jewellery in two, then throw it back on the blanket, thinking about all of those friends he had lost when the Earth Forces had invaded Orb two years ago.

Back then, he had been the pilot of an M1 Astray, and had been fighting along side five of his really good friends. And even true they had without a doubt been doing well, until the three Earth Forces' gundams had enter the battle.

After that three of his squad mates had been completely slaughter by the Calamity. While Shinji who was the only other one who had survived the assault had lost both of his legs.

And that was the reasons why Kazuma just couldn't stand the thought of working together with the very people, that had made both him and all of his friend's families suffer so badly. There was even a small part of him, that kinda wish that he had die instead. Seeing as he was an orphan, and had no real family on his own. Yet when he had mention that to Shinji once, who had been their squad leader. He had given him such a hard punch in the stomach, that one of his ribs had actually broken in the process.

Yet what had really hurt about the whole thing, was when Shinji had asked him, what he thought their friends would say, had they ever heard him talk like that.

And after thinking about it a few days. He made the decision to do everything he could, to make sure that Orb and it's people, was safe no matter what.

Frankly if anybody asked him, he would say that working together with those Earth Forces bastards, was kinda like asking a vampire to look after a blood bank. It just couldn't lead to anything good, no doubt about that. Everybody who had at least just a little brain, in their heads, could see that.

Which was properly why, the Seirans thought that working with them, was such a brilliant idea, those bastards truly gave the word moron, a whole new meaning.

"Damn it all, I really really want to beat the crap out of them right now!" He whispered to himself. Before picking up another piece of jewellery, which he gave the same treatment, as the last one.

Yet as he was sitting there so far away in his thoughts about the past, and slowly breaking up his 'merchandise', there was suddenly a loud noise from the direction of the Zaft base.

Which immediately made him move his gaze away, from the fifth piece of broken jewelry, and over at the Minerva. Where he instantly noticed, that both of it's hangar doors was being shut, and that the ship was slowly gliding out of the port.

Seeing that it was getting ready to leave. Kazuma hurried got back up on his feet. Ignoring the small cracking sounds, both of his knees made, from sitting in the same position for so long.

The only thing he was interested in right now, was seeing precisely which direction the Minerva was planing on going in. And not really all that shocking, but still to his big irritation, it began heading towards south.

So after giving his low lips a small angry bite. He muttered out a few curses. "Damn it, I better get out of here and tell the others about this" He said, while wondering why the hell his Murasame had to be so far away from this damn place. He would seriously have love to help out in this battl. But it would seem like, he had to leave it to the guys down on the Archangel.

And with that in mind he bent down and picked up the blanket, not caring one bit about the few piece of jewelry that was left behind.

So after taking one more glance at the Minerva. He turned and began making his way back to his car, that was hidden not far from there.

Once there he throw the blanket and the other stuff in to the back of the car, then pull of the fake beard and got in front of the wheel and start the car, which meant that it did not take long before he was driving full speed away from the area.

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Yet as Kazuma was heading back to his apartment, so he could warn his allies on the Archangel about what was going to happen very soon.

Athrun was sitting by himself in the Minerva's mess hall. But even true there was a big portion of bacon and eggs right in front of him. He hadn't really touch it all that much, seeing as he had a lot on his mind at the moment.

Especially Kira's words, about not trusting the Chairman, kept on flying hastily through his head. And also the fact that at some point in the near future, he was going to become a father, which he could honestly say, that he was looking forward to a great deal. He had already found himself wondering more then a few times if it was going to be a boy or a girl.

And what Cagalli and him where going to name the kid, when it was born. He already had a small bunch of suggestions he was considering about talking with Cagalli about, when he saw her again.

Yet as he was sitting there so far away in his thoughts about the more happy future, he was sincerely hoping to have, with the one he loved with all of his being. He did not noticed the piss off woman, who was hastily approaching him.

And it was only when she literally slammed her tray of food down by the seat across from him, that he almost fell backwards of his chair, because of the minor shock she had just given him.

So after using a few seconds to get his act together again.

He looked directly up at Lunamaria's face, where he could easily tell from the female pilot's expression. That she was in a very bad mood about something. "Why hello to you too Luna. From the looks of things, I would guess that you had a pretty rough morning" He said.

Not realizing that the reason why, she was in this kind of mood so early, was because she was still quite jealous and angry over the fact, that he had call out Cagalli's name, while he was sleeping.

He simply thought, that she had ran in to Shinn not long ago, and he had said something stupid to her. Which had of course pissed her off, or maybe she had gotten in to another argument with her younger sister.

But before he could even get his mouth open and ask what was bothering her, she cut him off and began talking to him in a tone, that frankly reminded him more then a bit about, the tone of voice Cagalli would usually use, whenever she was truly cranky about something.

"So Athrun Zala did you have are good night? Did you dream about something interesting?" She asked, sounding quite a bit like a bad cup, that was going through an interrogate of a newly caught criminal, she wanted information out of, no matter what it took.

Slightly taken back by the realization that it was actually him that she was mad at, Athrun blinked a few times in confusion, as he tried his best to figure out what exactly he could have done, to deserve her wrath.

Yet in the end he pretty much came up blank. He honestly had no idea about what he could have done, that had made her feel this bitter towards him.

But after going out with a girl, as short temper as Cagalli, for two whole years. He knew, that it was properly a very wise move on his part, to give the red haired girl

some kind of reply, before she ran out of patience.

"I slept fine Luna, thank you for asking. Yet unfortunately I don't really remember what exactly I was dreaming about" He explained. While picking up a single piece of bacon, which he chewed slowly a few times before swallowing it. Still quite puzzled about why she was this angry at him in the first place, seeing as he hadn't done anything wrong as far as he knew.

So he came to the conclusion that this whole thing was just a way for her to blow of a little steam. Life on a space ship for a long period of time could after all be kinda stressful. Especially if you had nothing to do other then wait around.

And being trapped at this place since Kira and Dearka's attack, would most likely bore most people. Not that he had paid much attention to that, he did after all have quite a lot of things he needed to think about. So he had honestly appreciated their time stuck, at this in the middle of nowhere base. It had after all given him the necessary time, to come to a decision about some of the more vital issues, that had been bothering him. Since his little chat with Kira.

Hearing that he could not remember what he had been dreaming about, did calm Lunamaria down a bit. But that still did not help much on the deep jealousy, she was feeling right now.

"So anything new with you and miss Cagalli recently?" She asked in a loud nosy tone, that made it sound a bit like, she already knew the answer, to the very question she had just asked him.

But as much as the girl's behavior was a source of great confusion to the young man. Athrun knew, that there was simply no way for Lunamaria, or anybody else on the Minerva to know about Cagalli's pregnancy. And he was completely determined to continue keeping it that way. Even if it meant he had to tell the woman in front of him, a small lie or two.

There was just no way in hell he wanted to in-danger Cagalli's life, by telling the female ZAKU pilot the truth. He just didn't want those kinds of rumors, to be spread around the ship, at least not until he was absolutely certain, that Shinn had no more hostile intention towards his fiancée.

And with that in mind, he slowly moved his gaze away from his meal and back over at the cranky woman.

"Well, I haven't really had many chances to talk with her, since I left Orb and joined you guys" he said, before using a brief second or two to yet again wonder. If that truly had been the right decision on his part.

Not at all satisfied with that response Luna lean forward a bit and took a look up in to his green thoughtful eyes. "But you still miss her a lot don't you?" She asked in a demanding voice. Which did make it seem quite a bit like she wanted some kind of answer from him, no matter what.

Still not getting what all of this was about. Even after being a part of the Minerva's crew for such a long time, there hadn't been anybody, who had wanted to talk with him about Cagalli.

Yet now Lunamaria was practically interrogating him about the subject. Not that he had anything against, answer some of her question.

It was just the way she asked them, that was seriously starting to put a strain on what patient he had with her. It wasn't really what he would consider fun being on the receiving end of Lunamaria's quest for knowledge, about his and Cagalli's relationship.

"Yeah I miss her Luna, I miss her even more then you can ever imagine. I do after all love her!" He said loudly. While at the same time narrowing his eyes a bit, which was a pretty obvious sign, that he was really starting to get a bit mad at her.

Yet because of that he did not noticed the disappointed expression she had on her face at the moment. So he just continued on talking, now utterly determined to get the girl to tell him what all of this had been about.

"So now that we got that out of the way Luna! Would it be too much to ask of you to tell my why? You are suddenly so interested in what's going on between Cagalli and me, as far as I remember you never asked about that before" he said- While trying to figure out the meaning with all of this, by studying her face. But the only thing that was somewhat clear, was that her mind was running about hundred miles in hour.

Which seriously made him wonder what she was thinking so hard about, but he didn't say anything else to her. He just sat there waiting patiently for her to finish going through, all of her thoughts.

And finally after a few short minutes, she moved her gaze away from the table and looked back over at him.

"It's nothing really Athrun, I was just...just a bit curious, now I better hurry up and get going. I'm sorry that I disturb you, while you where having your breakfast. I'll talk to you later!" She said. Before she practically leaped up from her seat, grab her untouched tray of food, then quickly march directly over to another table as far away from Athrun as possible.

And that table just happened to be one where, Nicol was sitting by himself, enjoying a peaceful morning by eating his breakfast in a slow pace, while reading a comic book which he had borrow from Shinn a couple of days ago.

Seeing the girl do that Athrun slowly shook his head a few times. "No matter how much times goes by, I quite honestly doubt, that there will ever come a time, where I will be able to understand women. Even Cagalli gets some of her more crazy ideas, which haft the time, just doesn't make any sense" he mumbled to himself, feeling more then a bit like hammering his head down in to the table a couple of times.

But in the end he decided, that he definitely did not want to run the risk of permanent brain damage. By actually trying to figure out the answers, to such an enormous mystery, which obviously wasn't meant to be solved, at least not by him.

And with that in mind, he let out a small yet frustrated sigh, as he reached down to his plate and picked up another piece of well roast bacon, which he instantly put in his mouth, and once that delicious food had disappeared down his throat.

The young man sat there a few minutes, trying to decide if Lunamaria's strange behavior, was something which he should be concerned about. But now that she was so busy talking with Nicol. He made the decision that it was best not to disturb her and piss her even more of then she was already.

So with no more reason to stay there, and with most of his appetite lost, he might as well head on down to the hangar, to see if Vino and Yolant was finished with the check-up on the Saviour. He wanted to be absolutely sure that the mobile suit hadn't take any internal damage, from Kira's inventive attack with the shield.

Beside if he didn't start working on the lock to the red mobile suit's activation system sometime soon. It might end up with him never being able to find the time for it, and there was just no way he could afford to take such a risk. Especially not now when he was having so many doubts about, if he could really trust Zaft and the Chairman.

So after putting away his tray, he left the mess hall without saying a word to anybody.

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Meanwhile over by Nicol's table.

The green haired man slowly low his reading material, and looked at the girl where he instantly noticed, the deeply depressing expression, that was covering up most of her lovely face.

"What's wrong Lunamaria, it's been a very long time since I seen you look this sad?" He asked in a worried tone. As he reached over and gave her hand a light gentle squeeze, in attempt to comfort her as much as he could from this position across from her.

Not saying anything the first many seconds. The red haired girl just kept on sitting there, staring sadly down at the table, doing just about everything she could think of to hide her downcast eyes, from the person watching pretty much every moved she made.

But when she felt Nicol give her hand another squeeze, she slowly moved her gaze over at him, where she could easily tell that he was more then just a bit concerned about her.

"I...I...just had a small talk with Athrun, that didn't really end the way I had wanted it" she told him in a quiet voice. While a single tear, slowly made it's way down her right cheek.

Yet before it could leave her face and land on the table, Nicol moved his hand out a carefully brush it away. Then caress her cheek a bit, as he began talking to her in a caring tone.

"I know that you have a thing for him Luna, but it just can't be help, he loves somebody else, and I highly doubt that he will ever forget about those feelings he has for Cagalli. But if you ask me Lunamaria, you could do so much better then Athrun, I'm certain that just about every single guy on the Minerva would praise their Lords for just about all of eternity, if they could go out on just one date with you" he told her, while softly running his index finger over her hand.

Hearing him say that Lunamaria blinked a few times, while a small red glow appear on both of her cheeks. That truly was one of the most sweet things a guy had ever said to her.

And as she sat there staring so thoroughly at Nicol's handsome face, she began thinking about all of those times he had been there for her, whenever she had the need to talk with somebody. Even now he was trying so hard to make her feel better.

And feeling the way he kept on rubbing her hand, did make both of Lunamaria's cheeks get an even more deep red colour as she began feeling even more giddy and warm inside. And it was only at that exact moment, that she realized how many times her fellow pilot had been around to help her out, whenever there was something bothering her.

So after watching him a bit longer, without saying even one word to him, a small embarrassed smile slowly appeared on her face, before the light red glow which had been covering both of her cheeks for some time now, grew a bit more in size.

And not wanting him to see, how silly she looked right now with her whole face red, she hurried moved her blue orbs away from him, and back downwards towards her food and the table.

"That's really sweet of you to say Nicol, but what about you? How would you react if the two of us where to go out on a date together?" The female mobile suit pilot asked sweetly, now with a curious look in her eyes. And with more then tiny hint of curious expectation hidden away in her voice.

Of course somewhat taken back by that question. The pilot of the Minerva's only GOUF, hastily lean back in his seat, and looked over at the girl with his eyes widen in surprise, as he tried to figure out what to say to her.

He would most definitely be lying quite a bit, if he where to say that he did not think that Lunamaria was an very attractive young woman.

But pretty much ever since he had first met her, he had consider her to be a very dear friend. Which he could in no way deny he cared more then a bit about.

Yet now that she had asked him such a earnest question. He was frankly somewhat on the bottom about what kind of response he should give her. Nicol did of course realize that it had not been long since, she had gotten her feelings hurt by Athrun.

Which meant that she was most likely, still very conflicted about that, and wanted to hear a few kind words, in the hopes that they could make her feel a little better about the whole thing.

At least that was what Nicol thought the first couple of moments, after the red-head had asked him that question.

But that was only until he took notice of the look in her blue eyes, which made it pretty clear that she took this subject very serious, and that it had nothing to do with Athrun, she honestly wanted to hear his opinion on the two of them going out.

Up until now Nicol had never really given the idea of dating Lunamaria much thought, in his eyes she was simply a person that he had gotten very use, to have around in his life. One that which he could go talk with, when things became a little rough, and he needed a friendly ear.

Now however, as he sat there thinking about what kind of date it would be, he surprisingly found himself a bit entice by the thoughts. It wasn't in anyway an unpleasant idea, to go out with the red haired beauty in front of him.

And he was certain, that if they ever did try something like that. They would surely have a lot of fun together. Not in the way his old friend Dearka would properly call fun, but like going out to see a movie or have dinner together.

Yet all of these thoughts, did end up leading to one big very important question, was Lunamaria actually trying to get him to ask her out, or did she just want to know what he thought about the whole matter.

But as he was trying so hard to come up with something to say to Luna. The face of another red haired woman enter his mind, and he could now clearly see Mayura's happy face smiling at him.

It might have become somewhat easier for him to bear losing her, over the past two years. But now that another girl he liked and cared a great deal about was asking him about dates, and what it would be like, if they where to try it out.

He quite honestly didn't know what he was suppose to say to her, but as his mind was starting to overload in it's haste, to find just the correct words to say to her. The alarm began sounding all over the ship.

And it was only a few short seconds later, when they both heard Meyrin's voice tell all pilots, to board their machine immediately and prepare for combat.

Far from happy about the fact that they had been interrupted in their little chat, Lunamaria let out a loud unhappy grumbling sound, while looking at the ceiling with an angry look in both of her eyes.

"Ahhh why the hell couldn't they have wait just a few more minutes" she called out loudly, while taking a glance over at the very person, that she had wait so patiently to get a response from. Unfortunately the expression on his face, didn't really tell her anything about what was going through his mind right now. Yet for a brief second she almost thought, that she saw a tiny hint of relief in his eyes.

Yet when she heard his next words, she realized that she had most likely seen wrong. "Lets get going Luna, we will continue this conversation later once we are done beating the crap out of whoever is out there" he said.

Then swiftly turned around on one foot, and began making his way towards the exit of the mess hall, with the Minerva's only female mobile suit pilot following closely behind him.

But even with all the yelling and battle preparations that was going on around them, there was however a small part of Nicol that was somewhat glad that he now had a bit more time, to think about his answers to the girl.

Maybe if he was fortunate enough she would have forgotten all about her little question when the battle was done. Yet when he consider those thoughts, he could not help but feel somewhat let down and depressed over that.

For some reason, he almost felt like his heart was trying to telling him, that it was extremely important that he gave Lunamaria some sort of reply. And just as he heard the first sounds of cannon fire from outside the Minerva.

It took least then a second before a explosion shook the enormous grey war ship.

Which pretty much instantly, made the former member of the Le Creuset team grab on to the door frame he was standing next to, while his other hand shot full speed out and took a hold on Lunamaria's left arm, just as she had been about to lost her balance and trip backwards on to the hard floor, and most likely get a nasty bump on her head.

He did however only let go of her once the ship stopped shaking from the first attack, which meant that he stood there for almost an entire minute, holding both on to her and the door frame, in an attempt to keep both of them from falling over.

It truly would be kinda pathetic if they each got hurt before they could even enter the battle, yet whoever was attacking them obviously wasn't the kind of person that would just fire a small warning shot or two.

For almost immediately after the ship was done shaking and Nicol was about to let go of his fellow pilot, the Minerva was suddenly forced quite violently to the starboard side, just as they both heard two explosion hitting the place where the Minerva had been located only a few seconds ago.

"Damn it all, there has to be a lot of them out there, if we are forced to evade like that" Nicol yelled out loudly, over the sounds of the Minerva's own weapons being fired, at their attackers.

After that there was a few moments of almost calm silence, which Nicol immediately took advantage of by releasing both his grip on the door frame, and the beautiful mobile suit pilot, who he had unintentionally been hugging the last couple of minutes.

Yet before he could move to far away from her, the redhead reach down and grasp on to his hand, to make sure that if something else happened they where there to help each other out.

"Lets hurry up and get moving Nicol. Whatever is happening outside is definitely serious, we need to get out there and give the others a hand!" Luna ordered in a loud utterly determined tone. While the sound of both Tristans being fired, traveled swiftly through the ship.

Seriously not thinking it was necessary to argue about that with her. Nicol hurried nodded a single time in agreement, just before the two teenages continued onward towards the hangar, holding hands the entire time. So they where able to assist one another in keeping their balance, every time the ship took a shape turn to either the port or starboard side.

Fortunately they where able to get down to the hangar with no further difficultly, where each of them was slightly surprised to see that the Saviour was still there, they had both thought, that the other pilots would already be outside fighting by now.

And still feeling somewhat sour towards the blue haired FAITH member, Luna narrowed her eyes a bit, while they ran past the gundam and over to their own mobile suits.

"What the heck is he still doing here? I thought he would be outside already beating the crap out of those bastards, messing up our day!" The female mobile suit pilot shouted loudly.

Just before she dropped Nicol's hand, and grasped tightly on to the cable, that was meant to take her up to her ZAKU's open cockpit.

Hearing her complain so loudly about the Saviour's present down there. Nicol took a quick glance over at her, while he too used the thick long black cable, to get up to where he needed to be on the yellow GOUF.

"Maybe something happened that prevent him from leaving the ship right away. We can ask him about that, once we get in to our machine!" Nicol yelled back.

Just as he saw Lunamaria pretty much leap in to the ZAKU Warrior, where she almost immediately shut the cockpit after herself, and started powering up the mass-produced mobile suit.

Knowing that there was no way she could answer him now. Nicol was completely silence the next few seconds, until he could finally get inside his own war machine.

And after strapping himself securely to the seat. He instantly got in contact with the gundam and the red ZAKU. "Athrun, why haven't you left yet?" He asked. While the GOUF was slowly being lifted on the catapult, making it so that the mobile suit, was ready to launch at any moment now.

Hearing his friend ask that, Athrun hurried took a brief glance away from his fast typing on the keyboard and up at the monitor, where he noticed that both Nicol and Lunamaria, where watching him. Each with a curious expression on their faces.

He did however not pay much attention to either of them. Before he once more turned his gaze and his concentration, back towards what little work, he needed to get out of the way, before the Saviour could finally leave the Minerva and join the battle outside.

"I was rewriting the Saviour's OS when the alarm sounded. And it would most definitely, have lead to more then a few problems for me, had I left without finishing all of this first!" Athrun explained loudly, while his hands pretty much flew over the keyboard.

Finally getting why Athrun's departure from the Minerva had been delayed. Nicol got a deep determined glimmer in each of his eyes, while he reached for the control in front of him.

"Both of us understand Athrun, we will handle thing until you are ready to join us!" The GOUF pilot said. Then instantly after shouted out both his own and the yellow mobile suit's names, telling the people listening in, that he was taking off.

Seeing the GOUF leave. The young and only Zala, at least right now began writing that much faster on the keyboard, if that was even possible. He frankly needed to get outside as quickly as humanly possible. He might be having some serious doubts, about what Zaft's intentions was at this moment in time.

But even so he was still a part of the Minerva's crew. And there was simply no way he was just going to sit around in here rolling his thumbs, while his fellow pilots was fighting for their lives outside.

So while watching Lunamaria take off to join the party outside he continued working on the mobile suit's OS. Seriously wondering how in the world Kira was able to write so incredibly fast, without hitting the wrong keys in the process.

Yet as luck would have it, he did not get long to wonder about that, before he was finally done resetting the mobile suit's OS. So it was now back to how it had been before, he had started messing around with the machine.

And not wanting to waste anymore time, then he already had.

He hurried took in a sharp breath, while informing the bridge, that he was at long last ready to leave. Which meant that it only took a few moments, before the mobile suit was dropped loudly down, on to the catapult.

"Athrun Zala, Saviour heading out!" He shouted determined, only to be pressed tightly back, in to the Saviour's seat a half second later, while the gundam hastily flew forward, and left the grey space ship's hangar.

Once he got outside, Athrun could not help but narrow his eyes slightly, when he saw all of the Murasames, that was hastily coming towards them.

He had frankly hoped that it was just the Earth Forces that was attacking them on their own, and that the Orb fleet was somewhere else other then here. Yet when he took a small look around the battlefield, he could see the Takemikazuchi in the distance.

"Damn you Yuna!" He mutter out between his lips. Honestly blaming the purple haired Seiran for Orb's present in the area.

If it hadn't been for Yuna and the rest of the Seiran family. He was absolutely certain that Cagalli could have found some way, to keep the small country out of this mess. And have it remain neutral like it was meant to be.

He did however not get long to curse the Seiran family for what they had done, when he was suddenly forced, to roll to the side and get the Saviour over in to it's mobile armor mode.

Just as two Murasames began attacking him from below, fortunately the red gundam had more then enough speed and maneuverability, to avoid all of the beams that the two transformable machine was firing after him.

Yet before he could do anything to counterattack.

The first one of the fast red and white mobile suits, was suddenly got cut in half by Nicol's beam sword, while the other one was taken out by a few well placed shots from the GOUF's beam gun.

"You do know Athrun, that with Orb involved in this, Kira and the others might decide to interfere again" the green haired man said. While he continuously fired of the only long range weapon his mobile suit had.

Hearing his friend say that. Athrun got over beside him and got the Saviour back over in to it's mobile suit mode.

Where he instantly pull out the rifle, and started firing at a new group of hastily approaching Murasames, forcing them to break their formation, as both his and Nicol's attacks flew in between them.

Realizing that Nicol was most likely right. Athrun evade up over two missiles one of the Murasames had fired after him. Yet even as he was doing that, the Orb mobile suit transformed and instantly began firing it's beam rifle after him.

And after using the shield to counter the first attack. He swiftly ducked down under the next one, then fired both plasma cannons up at the other transformable mobile suit, blowing off both it's right arm and leg in the process.

Yet as he was doing that, he noticed that Shinn was fighting with both the Chaos and the Abyss at the same time. And it was obvious, that he was having a few problems dealing with both of them together like this.

Their tactic was clearly a lot more well organize and thought through then usual. They each made somewhat sure to attack at exactly the same time, one from the water and one from the air.

Yet even true the strategy was kinda simple, it was definitely very effective, when it was used against a single opponent. But if somebody else where to interfere in the battle, it was pretty easy to mess up the whole thing.

And with that in mind, he turned and shoot of all the long range weapons on the Saviour after a Murasame that had been about to attack him from behind, forcing the red and white mobile suit to back away from him in a hurry.

"You are properly right Nicol, it was pretty obvious from our last meeting with Kira and Dearka, that there where not planing on heading back home to Orb anytime soon. So I guess we should prepare to face of against them again!" He said, while taking a look around, at the big amount of Murasames and Astrays that was gather out there.

Hearing those words. Nicol didn't hesitate a second in throwing the heat rod out after one of the Astrays, making the weapon entangle itself around some of the more vital parts on the flight rotor.

And with not one hint of remorse in his actions, he send a few thousand volts in to the pack.

Which was more then enough, to destroy it completely. And with nothing left to keep the mobile suit up there, it instantly began falling full speed straight down, towards the deep blue water below them.

Yet when Nicol saw a Murasame grab on to the Astray in an attempt to help it out, he narrowed his brown eyes a bit.

Just as he lifted the right arm, and fired a bunch of beams down in to the back of the Murasame, making it blow up, before it could do anything to save whoever was inside the Astray.

And once Nicol was absolutely certain, that nobody else would try to get a hold on the still free falling mobile suit. He pull out the beam sword and looked over at the Saviour.

"You go and help out Shinn with the Chaos and the Abyss Athrun, I'll deal with these guys!" He said, almost sound like he was actually looking forward to fight all of these Orb mobile suits on his own.

And not bothering to give Athrun the necessary time to come up with a response. The green haired pilot took off full speed, towards the large amount of approaching mobile suits.

Seeing Nicol take off like that, Athrun again narrowed his eyes, as he looked down at the Astray far below him, yet even from this high he could easily tell that it was sinking slowly down in the water.

The Orb mobile suit might still be mostly intact, but it was very unlikely that it's pilot, had actually survived a fall from such a high altitude. "Nicol what's going on with you? I never seen you fight so utterly merciless before" Athrun quietly muttered, while thinking about the overly brutal method, which Nicol had chosen to use, to end the lives of both the Murasame pilot and especially the Astray pilot.

Yet knowing that he didn't really have the time to wonder about that now.

Athrun hurried turn around and looked out after the Impulse, which was presently equipped with it's Blast Silhouette and flying around, not all that far above the ocean surface, clearly being chased by both of the stolen gundams.

And seeing as Athrun wasn't really that overly keen on fighting with the Orb forces, those two frankly was the perfect target for him in this battle. And with not one bit of hesitation, he took off full speed towards the three fighting mobile suits.

Absolutely determined to show them, just what exactly he could do in this machine.

To be continued.


	41. Chapter 41

Chapter 41

It hadn't been long since the crew of the Archangel had received the information about the assault. The Orb force was going to do on the Minerva.

So at this very moment a big part of the crew was gather up on the bridge. "Damn it all! If this actually is happening, then what the hell am I suppose to do about it, I really do want to stop them, but after last time...!" Cagalli said loudly, while she thought about the cold-shoulder. Her forces, had pretty much given her the last time, she had tried to talk some sense in to them.

Yet even with all of those thought flying through her mind, she unintentionally began rubbing her stomach, sincerely wondering if Kira and miss Murrue would even let her head outside should they go up there.

That was when Dearka cut in and gave the people his two cents about the subject. "It's a bit of a shame, that we know so little about what the Orb and Earth Forces are attacking with, if we did that it would be much easier to prepare" the blond man said.

Over from where he was standing next to Miriallia, who was by now occupied with going over the information one more time, incase she had overseen something the first time.

"Even if we did know what they where attacking with Dearka, it doesn't really change the fact. That one way or another, we have to do something about it, don't you agree with me on that sis?" Kira asked, while looking directly over at his sister. Where he of course could not help but notice, the uncertain expression she had on her face. And also the way she kept on rubbing her belly, obviously thinking about what was in there.

And when he was actually starting to think that she wasn't going to give him a reply. She slowly lifted her head, and looked over at him.

"I really want to do something Kira. But you know as well as I, that trying to convince the Orb forces to withdraw, when Yuna is the one leading them. Is pretty much like trying to convince Dearka that he isn't, an idiot" she said, ignoring the loud displeased shout from the blond Coordinator.

Letting out a small laugh at that comparison. Kira moved over and kneel down in front of his sister. "Are you sure that's really what you want to do Cagalli? Don't you at least want to try and stop them? You already know that this isn't the path that Orb should take. And I'm certain that if you just talk with them, more and more of the Orb soldiers would realize that. Truth be told I actually think, you have a lot more support then you think" he said, while taking a hold on the hand, which she had been using to rub her stomach the last few minutes.

Yet it was only when he gave it a gentle squeeze that she looked up at him. "But what if they don't want to listen to me. I really do want to stop them, but I don't have the same diplomatic abilities my father had. I'm not nearly as good at talking to the people, as he was!" She said, as a few tears left her eyes and slowly made their way down her face.

She honestly did feel like she had let her father down. By letting Orb join up with the Earth Forces.

And she truly did wish she could think of a way to put a stop to all of this. But with most of the other politicians, being on the Seiran's side. It would not do much good to try and talk with them again.

"I don't get what the heck you are talking about Kira. If I actually had just half of the support from the other politicians, I don't think it would have been necessary for us to travel all the way here. Yet you know as well as me, that they are all sucking up to the Seiran family" she growl out through her teeth. As she once more began dreaming about how entertaining it would be, to strangle a certain the purple haired Seiran.

Smiling slightly at her Kira slowly reach up and brush away one of the tears. "I'm not talking about any of the other politicians Cagalli. What I am actually referring to is your deep desire for peace, which is truly something pretty much the whole Orb military personnel knows about" he explained. Then thought back to how the Orb fleet had just let them go, when they had left Orb.

He did however not do that for very long, before he once more kept on talking, in the same reasonable tone as before. "And also your experience in piloting the Duel Rouge helps. Neither the Seirans, or any of their supporters, knows what it is like to pilot a mobile suit in real life combat. And the fact that you know how to do it, has definitely won you a great deal of respect, from a lot of the Orb soldiers" the brown haired teen said, then removed yet another tear from her cheek.

Looking a bit at him the blond woman thought hard about her brother's words. They did make a lot of sense to her.

Yet in the end she realized, that having a little respect, would most definitely not be enough, to make the Orb fleet to pull back. There was without a doubt, still a lot of the military that preferred the Seirans way of handling things. And those where the people she seriously needed to speak to.

If she could somehow convince them that attacking Zaft and the Minerva, wasn't going to bring Orb the peace, they where all longing to have. Then she was absolutely certain, that the fleet would withdraw, and return back home to Orb, no matter what Yuna would say to them.

So knowing what she had to do the blond girl nodded yes a single time. As she slowly got up from the seat, which she had been in sitting in pretty much since they had first gotten Kazuma's message.

"Ok you are right Kira. If I just stay back here it wouldn't accomplish anything. I don't want either the Orb fleet or the Minerva to be destroyed. So I just have to find a way to stop this battle" she said. Then began making her way over to the door, so she could get down to the hangar and the Duel Rouge.

Yet before she could get very far, Murrue hurried reached over and grabbed on to her right arm.

"If you really want to stop them miss Cagalli, then you can definitely count on our support. But I am uncertain if it's wise, to let you go out in a the Duel Rouge in your condition, if anything was to happen the baby, then it would be a disaster, so perhaps you should consider speaking to them from here on the Archangel" the bronw haired woman said in a tone, that left little doubt about how serious she took this matter.

Hearing that Cagalli immediately narrowed her eyes a bit. "Damn, I guess that I forget all about that" she said in a low tone. While the others where frankly wondering just how exactly, somebody could forget that they where pregnant.

Fortunately they where all clever enough not to comment on it.

Yet if one where to take a look at Dearka's face, it was pretty easy to tell. That the former pilot of the Buster had more then a few things to say about it. But thanks to the hard squeeze, Miriallia gave his left arm. The blond Coordinator came to the decision, that it was properly a wise idea to keep his smart alec comments to himself.

It was just about the same time that Kira once more started talking. "You know that miss Murrue is right Cagalli. It's best that you stay here, me and Dearka will take care of things outside! So you just concentrate on talking some sense in to the Orb forces!" He said, in a loud determined voice.

Just as Dearka nodded slowly in agreement, and gave the blond woman a thumbs up sign, and a overly confident smile. Which truth be told did remind Cagalli slightly, about the grin Mu would usually have on his face, whenever he had been about to do something stupid.

But now wasn't really the right time to be thinking about him. So she quickly shook those thoughts away, while she once more turned her attention back towards Kira where she noticed that he too had a pretty confident look on his face.

Seeing the two of them wearing that kind of expression, Cagalli just couldn't stop herself, from letting out a deep sigh. While she slowly reached up and used her hand to rub both her eyes and her forehead.

"Ok I trust the two of you to handle this. Just don't skew the entire thing up in the end" she mumbled displeased, actually making it sound quite a bit like relying on the two of them, where the very last thing she wanted to do.

Yet neither one of the pilots was overly hurt by the girls lack of confident in them.

"Wow feel the deep trust here, I can honestly say that both Kira and I really appreciate all the support, which you are giving us miss Athha" Dearka said, with a great amount of sarcasm in his voice, as he gave the blond girl a bow, that could only be interpreted as an attempt to annoy her.

And it only took a few short seconds before she was glaring angrily at the ship's two mobile suit pilots. In all honesty considering if she should do something mean and painful to them.

But in the end she realized that if she did that, they properly wouldn't be as effective in their mobile suits, as they usually was. And with that in mind she gave her lower lips a hard bite, while squeezing both of her fist together.

"Get out of here you two before I do something that would make both Lacus and Miriallia sad!" She shouted as loud as humanly possible. Before she practically chased the two laughing men out of the bridge. And she was only satisfied, once she saw the metal door fly back shut behind the two fools.

After that she turned around on one foot, and made her way over to the seat beside Arnold, who was also having a bit of trouble keeping his own laugher under control.

But even true Cagalli could easily tell, that he too had found the entire scene completely hilarious. She knew that it was pretty much impossible, for her to kick him out of there too. They kinda needed him to steer the Archangel, once they where ready to leave.

She did however not get very long to think about, how unbelievable childish men could be from time to time.

When Murrue's loud voice, suddenly interrupted her wandering thoughts. As she started yelling out orders left and right. Telling all of the crew members gather up there, exactly what they should do.

Which meant that it did not take very long, before all of the Archangel's extremely powerful engines awoke for the very first time in weeks.

And knowing what was in wait for them, Cagalli slowly closed her eyes, as she tried her best to figure out, what precisely she should say to the Orb forces once they arrived at Crete.

One thing she especially would love to have in her future speech, was something that would really drag the Seiran name through the mud. Yet she quickly realized that doing something like that, would be kinda unprofessional.

And knowing quite a bit about how the purple haired moron thought, he would properly find someway to use it against her. So she simply had to behave like a grown up mature adult. Not like an eighteen-year-old girl, who knew nothing about how dreadful war could truly be, and how serious politic really was.

She could always try and come up with a way to get even with Yuna and the rest of the Seirans once all of this was over. Yet now that she actually gave it a little thought. The young woman came to the realization, that just her being there, should be more then enough to get under Yuna's skin.

And just thinking about what kind of expression, he would have on his face, when she started talking to the Orb forces. Was pretty much all that was needed to make a small yet wicked grin, ran over her pink lips.

Yet after smirking about that for a moment or two, her face once more turned deeply serious. Ss she slowly moved her seat a bit to the side, so she was now looking back at Miriallia, who was presently busy typing away on the controls in front of her.

But when Cagalli saw her friend take a brief break, she instantly opened her mouth and asked the one question she had on her mind right now.

"So just how long is it going to take before we get there Mir? It frankly would be a total letdown, if the only thing we can do there, is see a whole bunch of destroyed ships and mobile suits!" She said, not doing anything to keep the deep concern out of her voice.

Not wanting to waste anytime, the youngish of the two female brunettes up there, instantly began moving her figures over the keyboard, making absolutely certain to press just the right buttons. As she tried her best to estimate precisely when they where going to arrive at the battlefield.

And finally after using an unknown number of seconds on that task. Miriallia slowly lift her head and looked down at her friend.

"If we get there without any kind of delay, then we should arrive there in about half hour or so!" She said.

Just before taking another glance down at her controls, to make completely certain that everything was function, as it was suppose to. And that she hadn't made any kind of mistake in her calculations. Yet as far as she could tell, everything truly did seem to be in perfect order.

And even true the news about how long the trip there was going to take, obviously didn't make Cagalli any happier. There wasn't really a whole lot Miriallia could do about it right now.

So she just turned around and continued working on what else that needed some of her attention. Before they would practically leap straight in to the fight they where now heading directly towards.

Yet as displeased as Cagalli was at the moment. She could not help but be a bit in awe, when the Archangel broke through the ocean surface, and they where all finally able to see the blue sky, above them once more.

It wasn't really a big secret that being stuck down on the bottom of the ocean for such a long time, could be kinda tiresome and frustrating. So it truly was nice with a new changes of scenery.

Unfortunately they didn't really have long to enjoy it. Before Arnold turned the front of the Archangel, in the direction which they needed to go, and get the enormous white space ship up to full speed.

000000

Meanwhile down in the hangar.

Kira enter the hangar dressed in his usual blue and grey space suit, and after taking a small glance over at the Freedom to make sure that his mobile suit was ready to head out at a moment's notice.

He immediately made his way over to Dearka and Murdoch who was standing over by the ships two Murasames. Yet as he got closer to them it became pretty clear that both of them where feeling a bit nervous at the moment. Seeing as they where quite busy discoursing which one of the two Orb mobile suits, had the most unique and awesome colour scheme.

But knowing the two of them as well as he did, Kira realized that the only reason why, they where actually wasting time arguing about something so trivial, was simply because they where concerned about what they where heading in to.

Apparently both the pilot and the mechanic, felt a little better about the situation. If they had the time to joke around a bit first.

"Well if you ask me Elsman, Waltfeld's Murasame is much cooler then yours. I just don't like the idea, that your machine have almost the exact same colour as a Zaft GOUF!" Murdoch said, while looking a few times between the two transformed mobile suits.

Feeling a angry frown ran over his forehead Dearka began speaking in a serious tone. "That's actually the reason why, I choose that colour in the first place. I wanted to make certain that if I ever had to go up against a GOUF, that it would be kinda hard for it's friends to tell, which machine was which. I kinda felt like that little idea would give me a small edge, when fighting a GOUF!" Dearka explained in a thoughtful tone.

But as much sense those words made to the chief engineer. He honestly didn't feel like this discussion was done just yet.

"Well that strategy frankly does work against you on some level. It will also make it that much harder for your allies to tell you apart, if you are fighting a whole bunch of GOUFs on your own" Murdoch said, while thinking shortly about how both machines looked, when they where over in mobile suit mode.

And even true there was simply no way he was going to tell Dearka at least not right now. He honestly had to admit, that the colours the former Zaft pilot had chosen for the Murasame, did look pretty sweet.

He did however not get very long to think about that, before Dearka cut in and interrupted his thoughts, by sharing his next argument about the two somewhat unique coloured Orb mobile suits. "Then I guess, that I'm kinda lucky that my only ally right now, is a guy who prefers to just destroy the heads and arms, of the mobile suits that gets in his way!" Dearka said back. As he took a glance over at Kira to see his opinion about their little discussion.

Noticing his friend do that, Kira instantly turned his back towards the two arguing men, doing his best to pretend, he hadn't heard a single thing, they had been saying to each other.

He frankly didn't want to get caught in the middle, when the two of them where arguing like this. Unfortunately even with his minor attempt to stay out of it, Dearka was quite determined to get him mixed up in the fight no matter what.

"So Kira buddy, which one of the Murasames do you think looks coolest?" Dearka asked, making sure that his voice was so loud, that there was no way Kira could just ignore it.

And realizing that the entire hangar had properly heard Dearka just now.

Kira slowly turned around and looked back at his fellow pilot, where one small look at his face, made it pretty obvious, that it would be kinda hard for him to get out of there, without first giving them some sort of reply.

And seeing as he had never really bother taking the time to think about this before now, he slowly turned his gaze and looked over at the blue Murasame then over at the yellow one, trying his best to decide which one of them where the most awesome looking one.

But even while doing that, he could not help but wonder why exactly he had been mix up in this.

He should just have played it safe, and kept his distance from them. When he realized what was going on, yet knowing that now didn't really do him much good, there was simply no way, these guys would permit him leave, without him first sharing his opinion, on the two mobile suits appearance.

So after standing there looking between the two machine, for who knew how many minutes. He finally looked back at the mechanic and the other pilot.

"I have to say that Dearka's machine is the best. Seeing as the Murasame is foremost design to fight and fly around down here in the atmosphere, the blue colours do camouflages the mobile suit pretty well, unlike the bright yellow once on Mr Waltfeld's Murasame" Kira said, while thinking briefly about, how easy the yellow patten on Waltfeld's mobile suit, was to spot in the middle of a battle.

But before he could really give it all that much thought, the argument he had been so unwillingly pull in to continued.

"Hah! Take that Murdoch I win! There is no way you can disagree with both of us!" Dearka cheer loudly, behaving almost like he had just won the most important fight ever.

That however was not enough to get the Murdoch to keep his mouth shut. "Hmm it's obvious that you kids, don't know anything about mobile suits!" The blue haired man said. Even true he knew that statement was so far from the truth, as it could possibly be.

If anybody asked him, the two teenages in front of him frankly was some of the best mobile suit pilots, he had ever meet.

And he couldn't even describe, how much respect he had for both of them. And how deeply honour he felt being able to help fix up their mobile suits, whenever there was a need for it.

But no matter how much he cared about both of the pilots, he was still more then willing, to keep this minor quarrel going. At least until it was time for the two boys to head out. Beside it also gave them something to do while heading for the battlefield.

Hearing the man say that, both pilots took a small glance over at each other.

Before they once more looked back at the engineer. And not really all that unexpected and surprising, Dearka was of course, more then ready to continue on with the somewhat mindless debate.

Yet what was a surprise was that Kira actually seemed a bit insult by Murdoch's last statement, and now looked ready to fight back to show the few people listening in how much knowledge he had about mobile suits in general.

Which meant that it did not take many seconds. Before the three of them continued on with their friendly little discussion, about who of them knew most about mobile suits.

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So while that small fight was going on down in the Archangel's hangar.

A far more serious and deadly one, was happening at the very destination, the white space ship was heading full speed towards.

"Once I'm through with you buddy, there is only going to be one green mobile suit left out here!" Sting Oakley yelled loudly over from the Chaos, while firing of every single missile the mobile suit had, after the Impulse. That was still flying around just above the ocean surface.

Seriously pissed that this guy thought he would go down that easy. Shinn narrowed eyes slightly. Just as he immediately took aim, and fired off the two long-range cannons, at the hastily approaching warheads, taking out most of them before they could even come close to hitting him.

But even as he doing that, the short tempered boy hurried got the Impulse moving again, just as the last two missiles flew in, and hit the exact spot where he had been only a few seconds ago.

And seeing all the water that flew up, thanks to the explosion. Shinn instantaneously moved forward to hid himself in the Chaos' homemade geysir. But even as he did that, he quickly fired both of the rail cannons at the Chaos, forcing the other gundam to back away from him and use it's shield to defend itself. As he pulled out the javelin, and slammed it out after the Chaos' head. Only to hit the shield instead.

Yet as they where struggling to overpower each other like that, for a short moment or two. Shinn yelled out his thoughts about the enemy pilots last comment.

"That's a laugh you stupid bastard. You wouldn't even be able to pilot that mobile suit, if it wasn't because of all the damn drugs. The Earth Forces keeps on pouring in to you guys!" The dark haired boy yelled. Seriously believing that this guy had undergone the exact same treatment as Stella.

Hearing brat he was fighting against say something like that. Was more then enough to hurt the green haired man's pride quite a bit. And as he sat there staring straight at Impulse's face, he could feel a deep angry vein make it's way over his forehead.

"It would seem that you learnt a few things, from you visit to Lodonia. Unfortunately you are not going to get much use out of the knowledge!" He yelled angrily, while pulling out the Chaos' own close combat weapon. Which he instantly tried to thrust through the Impulse's cockpit.

Seeing what the bastard was about to do, Shinn instantly slammed the Impulse's knee in to the stomach area of the green mobile suit, which was more then enough to make the two machines, break away from one another.

Yet before they could get very far from each other. Shinn let the two rail cannons jump over the shoulders and fired them in the direction of the Chaos, doing his best the make at least one of the shoots hit the cockpit.

Unfortunately the minor assault was unsuccessful, as the enemy pilot immediately flew up over the attack. Then pull out the beam rifle, which he didn't waste anytime in firing back at him.

So after countering that attack with the shield, Shinn placed the javelin back to where it belong on the Impulse, then swiftly got his own rifle out and began firing back at the Chaos.

Which pretty much meant that it did not take long, before their highly deadly duel turned in to a long range competition, about who of them where best at aiming their beam rifles, and what other weapons they had, made for long distance combat.

Yet with all the extra cannons and guns on the Blast Impulse. It soon became obvious, that Shinn had the upper hand in this battle, something which he of course was very quick to use to his advantage, by continuously firing at the other mobile suit. That simply did not have the time to shoot back.

But after using a few minutes, to try and blow a few holes in the Chaos, it wasn't long before the pilot of the stolen gundam had something new to say to him. "To hell with you, you bastard!" He yelled while firing a few beams back, which Shinn quickly rolled to the side to avoid.

And once he got the Impulse to a hold he again fired of the two long-range beam cannons, while saying a few words back.

"I think a damn thief like you, would properly be invited down there first!" He yelled, before participially tearing the javelin out again, and without one bit of hesitation he charged with full speed at the other machine. Which meant that it was only about a half second later, when the two powerful mobile suits, meet not far above ocean surface, where they slammed their close combat weapons together once more, each of them snuggling hard for control.

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At the same time not that far away, Athrun quickly evade away from the double attack, the Abyss fired at him from the dual beam cannons, which it had when it was in it's mobile armor mode.

Yet not wanting to give this guy the chance to get of another attack. The blue haired man instantly pointed the rifle downwards and fired a couple of beams back after the Abyss, that not surprisingly disappeared back down in to the ocean.

And knowing that this guy could attack him from just about everywhere right now. Athrun made sure to keep his eyes open no matter what, and he was actually a bit tempted to follow the guy down there. But he knew that by doing that, he would be giving the Abyss an enormous advantage. The Saviour wasn't really made for fighting down in water, like the Abyss was.

So his best bet right now was to keep moving in an attempt to make himself a difficult target. But as he got the Saviour over in to it's mobile armor mode, the Abyss jumped out of the water where it immediately spread out it's two fins and fired all the weapons it had in there after him.

But as that was happening, he got the Saviour moving and flew full speed forward, thereby making the beams fly right over him. And making him end up below the other mobile suit where he instantly transformed again and fired the two plasma cannons upwards after the Abyss.

Yet seeing as he didn't have the necessary time to really aim properly, the first of the red beams did not even come close to the Abyss, while the second one blow off the right leg on the water type mobile suit.

Which was not really something that was worth celebrating. It wasn't like the Abyss had a hold lot of use for that part, when it was messing around down in the deep blue water.

But the minor damage was apparently still more then enough to piss the guy inside the Abyss of greatly. "You stupid already dead bastard! I'll show you who you are messing with!" The guy over in the Abyss yelled loudly. As he swiftly got the lance ready to fight.

Seeing him do that Athrun narrowed his eyes slightly, as he hurried pull out one of the beam sabers, and just as the blue mobile suit, began falling downwards straight towards him. It wasn't even a split second, before they each of the gundam swung their weapons out after each other.

And for pretty much everybody that was watching them fight from the far distances. The lightning fast strike each of the war machine did, looked extremely vicious and very deadly.

Yet for all who where to take a closer look at them, it was pretty obvious, that neither of the gundams, had received any damage from the attacks. Seeing as the only thing they had succeeded in hitting, was each others weapons.

After that the Abyss continued onward down towards the water, where thanks to it's enormous weight and size gave quite the splash when it landed.

And with so much water flying around, it was a bit of a challenge for both pilots to see each other. Yet that small hindrance did not slow the fight down much, as each of them immediately fired a few shots, at the very places where they believed the other was located.

Yet not all that surprisingly, neither pilot had been foolish enough to stay completely still, once the blue gundam had made it's descend back in to the deep blue ocean water.

So with no idea about where the Abyss had disappeared to, the young Zala made sure to keep moving about in a small attempt to make himself a much harder target to hit.

But as he was doing that he slowly let both of his eyes glide over the stolen mobile suit's almost endless hiding place.

There was however not sign of it right now, but from what he had seen of the Abyss pilot's fighting style. He was certain, that this guy would most likely try and approach him from behind. He seemed to like the whole surprise attack thing a great deal, and Athrun did actually wonder slightly if this was what the people that had been facing Nicol and the Blitz had felt like, two years ago.

It really wasn't what he would consider fun not being able to find the enemy, you where going up against, and the Blitz had the ability to disappeared completely from sight, thanks to it's Mirage Colloid. So that truly had to be much worths then this.

He did however not get the opportunity to give it much through, before he saw a shadow move around down in the water. Which instantly made him turn around and fire both plasma cannons, down after the object.

Yet when he did that the shadow disappeared once more, so in the end he had no other choice then to wait, until the crackpot reappeared again.

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Meanwhile over on the Takemikazuchi.

Todaka was silently watching the battle that was going on outside, while his best friend Amagi, was standing just a few feet behind him, also with most of his attention turned outwards.

They did however only get a few short moments, to watch all those terrible things, that was going on outside, when their so call leader's voice suddenly cut in to both of their rummaging thoughts.

"What are you standing around there for Todaka? Hurry up and get the rest of the Murasames and Astrays in the air. If we sic all of our mobile suits at them. I'm sure not even the Minerva, would be able to handle them all. This will truly show the world what Orb is made of!" The purple haired man said, in a tone that made it pretty clear for everybody that was listening to him. That he was quite pleased with what was happening right now.

Todaka on the other hand was far from happy about what was going on, in his eyes this whole battle was just so pointless. Which made it even more horrifying every single time an Orb soldier out there lost his life.

Just why in the world did it have to come to this, it wasn't really hard to tell that Zaft had no hostile intentions towards them. So why exactly was this battle necessary, none of the people that was getting killed at this very moment, had in anyway deserved it.

So after seeing yet another Murasame blow up outside he turned and looked back at the Seiran. Trying his best to hide the deep anger and hate, he was feeling towards the young Seiranu. It was after all his fault that they where here in the first place.

"It would be stupid sending all of our mobile suits out at once. If we did that, there is a high possibility that they might collide with each other, so lets just keep on using the same strategy we have been using since the start of the battle!" Todaka said, frankly hoping that the Seiran would buy this story. He really didn't want to send any more people to their death, then he had to.

But one look at the expression on Yuna's face, was enough to tell Todaka, that the purple moron was thinking quite hard, about what he had just told him. And finally after a few seconds, he nodded slowly in understanding. "Ok that does make sense Todaka, just make sure to keep the pressure on them, no matter what. We do not want to give them anytime to recover now!" Yuna said loudly.

As he continued watching the battle with big eyes, This was almost like playing those strategy video games he liked so much. Which was the reason why, he was pretty confident that this battle against the Minerva would end with an staggering victory to Orb. There wasn't one of those games, he hadn't beaten at some point in time.

And that simple fact alone, was more then enough for him to consider himself, the almost perfect strategist, there was just no way, they where going to lost this battle with him in charge.

Realizing that Yuna wasn't paying any attention to them, because he was so occupied with dreaming about the victory. Which he obviously fully believed, was going to be theirs, in just a little while.

Yet like any true commander Todaka knew better then celebrate victory before hand. Not that he was going to do that anyway, even if they did win this battle. He was just so much against this, that he was seriously considering knocking the Seiran out and order all of their forces to retreat.

But the grey haired man knew that if he did something like that. There was a very big chance, that the bastard with the mask would once more start treating to attack Orb.

And that was most definitely not something that could be allowed. It was with no doubt better, that they fought out here then back home it Orb, that however did not in anyway mean, that he actually approved of what they where doing out here. There was just no way, any of this could be right.

It was just about the same time that Amagi asked him something in a very low tone. "Do you think that lady Cagalli and the Archangel will show up again? I just can't help but feel, that the things we are doing here is wrong" the grey haired man said, while taking a glance out at the Minerva that could be seen fighting desperately in the far distance.

Hearing him ask that. Todaka turned and took a short glance back at his long time best friend. And after making sure that Yuna wasn't listening in on their conversation, he gave him a response.

"Hopefully my friend, hopefully. I just hope that lady Cagalli can stop all of this, before even more lives can be satisfied in this completely meaningless battle!" He said back in a sad tone.

Just as he again continued watching the fight outside, sincerely hoping that lady Cagalli and the Archangel, would get here in time, before it was to late. There was after all some Orb soldiers out there. That was that was utterly determined to follow through with Yuna's orders, to destroy the Minerva. Even if it cost them their own lives in the process.

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Yet as the two men was waiting and hoping that the Archangel would show up sometime soon.

Rey was sitting in his white ZAKU watching as about twelve or thirteenth Murasames was coming straight towards them. "Are you ready Luna?" He called out, while he carefully took aim at the leading Orb mobile suit, And once he was certain that it was close enough, he instantly fired a few shots up after it. Hitting the front of the transformed mobile suit.

That however was far from enough to take it out.

Yet when his second shot hit the left wing the Murasame rolled around a few times, as the pilot inside the mobile suit was desperately trying to regain some control of the craft.

But in the end it didn't really do him much good, as he ended up crashing full speed down in to the ocean, where the Orb war machine blow up, not that Rey or Luna paid much attention to that. They where far more occupied with keeping and eye on the rest of the Murasames. That was pretty much swarming around the Minerva, like a bunch of irritating flies.

"If I'm not ready now Rey, I don't think I'll ever be!" Lunamaria said back, while aiming the giant beam cannon, upwards towards the still hastily approaching mobile suits.

And when they where in ranger, she didn't hesitate even a second, about pressing down on the trigger, which immediately made the extremely deadly red beam leave the weapon.

But just when it seemed like, it was about to hit the first one of the Orb mass-produced mobile suit straight on. The Murasame roll to the side, and just barely avoided the beam.

Yet before the red haired pilot, could get out even one word of dissatisfaction, the next Murasame literally dump what missiles it had left down towards her.

And with the limited space she had to move around on. The only thing she could do to defend herself, was try and cover up her machine's cockpit, with the shield and arms.

But even true that tiny action properly save her life. She could of course still feel the explosion from the missiles all the way around her, as they send her ZAKU falling backwards on to the deck with a loud crashing sound.

And the very last thing she heard, before she lost consciousness was Rey calling out her name, only to be followed shortly after by Meyrin.

Hearing all of the worried shorts for Luna, Nicol turned and looked down at the Minerva, where he immediately took notice of the completely wrecked up condition the red mobile suit was now in.

"Get her inside now! Rey and I will keep them away while you do that, if she stays out here, she is as good as DEAD!" The green haired man yelled, doing nothing to hide how angry this truly made him.

And before anybody had the time to give him a response. He pulled out the beam sword, and took of to meet the next group of incoming Murasames.

Yet even as he was jamming the sword in to the side of the Orb mobile suit. He could not help but think back to the small moment, he and Luna had shared, just before the battle had started.

He might still be greatly puzzled about what they had discoursed. But that didn't in anyway mean, that he wanted anything to happen to the red haired girl. And he was determined, to make these bastards paid for hurting her like this.

But even with their combined effort. the many Murasames out there was slowly yet steadily starting to get the upper hand, there was simply to many of them for Rey and Nicol to handle on their own. And with more and more of the Minerva's weapons out of commission. It was beginning to seem quite a bit like they where actually fighting a losing battle.

Especially the one Murasame that had hurt Lunamaria seemed very determined to destroy the Minerva.

Even if it had to do it all on it's own, it just didn't seem to matter how many times they would try to shoot it down, the pilot would always find someway to get around their attacks.

"Damn it, whoever this bastard is he is definitely good!" Nicol yelled loudly. Just as he throw the heat rod out after the Murasame with the intention of piercing the red and white mobile suit's cockpit, and kill the pilot inside the machine.

But the result he got was far from what he had wanted as the Murasame pretty much just bash the weapon away with it's shield, and before Nicol could even try and aim the beam gun at the machine. He was attacked by three other Murasames. which pretty much forced him to turn his attention away from the lead craft and over at them.

"Yeah tell me about it, but we have to stop him before he can get any closer!" Rey yelled, while glaring hatefully up at the lead machine. It was kinda obvious that shooting this guy down was not an option. So after dropping the beam rifle on the deck and making a small dent in the process, he swiftly pull out both beam tomahawks. Then turned, and looked up after the lead Murasame.

And once he saw it evade up over a few shots, from the Minerva's machine cannons. He instantly throw first the left close range weapon, and then the right one up after it.

But whoever was inside Murasame, immediately got the mobile suit moving and got out of the first tomahawk's path, then hurried fired a few beams down at the next one, all of them flying right past the weapon.

So in the end the bastard apparently decided that the right leg on the Murasame wasn't very important, as he moved slightly to the side, where he gave the tomahawk an extremely hard kick, which cut up the leg quite a bit. And making both it, and the weapon blow up.

And before either Rey or Nicol, could curse this guys abilities in the mobile suit.

He swiftly evaded another attack from the Minerva, then dropped down and aimed the rifle directly at the grey space ship's bridge, clear planing on killing everybody in there.

And with Nicol still being caught up fighting with the three Murasames from before. And with Rey not having any weapons ready to use. The two young men could do nothing else but watch, as the beam rifle began glowing more and more.

To be continued.


	42. Chapter 42

Chapter 42

Realizing what was about to happen, and knowing that they could do nothing about it.

Nicol continued trying to get past the small group of Murasames. "Get out off my way you bastards!" He yelled out in a panicking tone, as he slammed the sword in to the side of the closed mobile suit, then turned and called out the Minerva's name, as he fired the beam gun at the next Murasame.

But even as he was doing that, he knew that there was just no way he could get there in time.

Rey on the other hand didn't do anything he just stood there looking straight at the Murasame, like he was actually trying to show the enemy pilot that he wasn't going to break down over this, and that he would die with his head held high.

But just as the Orb mobile suit was about to destroy the bridge and kill everybody in there. A single beam came flying in from out of noway, and hit the rifle straight on which instantly made it blow up in the red and white mobile suit's hand.

"What in the world was that?" Nicol asked confused, as he turned and looked in the direction where the shot had come from, Which was when he saw the Freedom gundam heading right at him, where it immediately pull out it's beam saber and removed the heads on both the Murasames, he had been trying to get past the last few minutes.

After that the blue and white gundam, which Nicol had been fighting along side with, so many times in the past. Continued onwards with top speed to join up with the Archangel. That was at this very moment, was hastily approaching the area. Being escort by a single blue Murasame.

And just the sight of the white space ship and the extremely powerful gundam. Was more then enough to bring the entire battle to a hold, as the ships two mobile suits got in to a position in front of the ship, incase it needed to be defended.

So after taking a look out over the battlefield, Dearka let out a subdued chuckle, before he began talking in a very loud yet serious tone.

"And the two heroes arrives to save the day! To tell you the truth Kira, I wasn't sure that you where going to make it. I honestly thought that guy was going to put a nice big hole straight through the Minerva's bridge!" He said, while taking a look around at all the mobile suits assemble there. It was pretty obvious, that most of them, was keeping a watchful eye, on them at the moment. Properly feeling a bit uncertain about what was going to happen now.

Kira however didn't say anything at first, as he sat there staring directly down at the Saviour which was hanging by itself not that far above the ocean surface.

He might not say it out loud. But he had sincerely hoped since their last meeting, that it wouldn't be necessary for him to fight Athrun again. Yet from what he could tell from there, his best friend and his future brother-in-law was still on Zaft's side, at least for now.

Yet knowing that now wasn't really the best of time to get all depressed. Kira slowly shook his head, as he took a small glance over at the Murasame floating around just beside him.

"Well if I have to be completely honest Dearka, I would lying if I said that it was a piece of cake disarming a mobile suit from that distance, while also moving around with that kind of speed!" He explained, while using a few brief seconds to think about, how fast the Freedom could actually move, when it's ten wings was fully spread out, and it was going at top speed.

He did however not get a whole lot of time to think about that. Before Cagalli cut in to their conversation. "Why in God's name is it that you two idiots always have to have these trivial chats at the most vital times? You did the same thing when we where off to talk with Athrun at Crete, so shut up both of you so I can concentrate on what I want to say!" She ordered them loudly.

Just as Miriallia told her that everything was ready, and that she could now begin talking whenever she wanted.

"Attention all Orb forces, please stop this meaningless battle at once, attacking Zaft or the Minerva isn't going to help Orb one bit. So please turn around and go back home to Orb we all need to work togeth...!" That was about all she got out, before a loud angry voice cut in to the communication.

And started telling her his thought about what she was saying right now. "Ahhh Shut the hell up you dumb bitch, you don't know anything about what you are saying!" Shinn yelled loudly over pretty much every single radio canal that existed.

Hearing that. Cagalli could of course not help but be surprise. She did not think that Shinn would interfere like this, when she was actually trying to help out the Minerva.

"Shinn now isn't really the best time for this, I just want to help...!" Yet before she could say anything else. He told her that she was worthless, and that she could not help anybody no matter how hard she tried.

And after taking a long breath, he told her that she should just go to hell. And with those words, he hurried took aim and fired the six missiles one the Impulse straight towards the Archangel.

Seeing him do that, Cagalli could not keep the next few words in.

"You really are the most spoil and childish brat, I have ever had the displeasure of meeting Shinn!" She told him much more calmly then she actually was. Then hurried cut off the communication, before he could say anything else.

It was after all pretty pointless trying persuade the Orb forces to withdraw now.

She could of course easily figure out what Yuna's next move was going to be. He would most likely use Shinn's completely brainless interruption and attack on her, as away to convince the Orb soldiers there, to keep on fighting.

"Damn you Shinn, you are just so damn annoying!" She muttered softly.

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At the same time outside, Athrun was somewhat shocked over what Shinn had just done. He had kinda wished, that Cagalli had gotten the necessary time to at the very least try and talk some sense in to the Orb fleet. But that was clearly not something, that was going to happen now.

So while watching Kira and Dearka move a bit forward. Where they instantly began firing their machine guns down at the approaching missiles, there was a small part of him that could not help but wonder, what in the world was going through Shinn's mind at times like these.

Yet while he was thinking about that, a small talk was going on between the two pilots from the Archangel. "Kira that guy in the Impulse, is properly the biggest threat right now, so lets get rid of him quickly!" Dearka yelled determined. And just as those words had left his mouth. The Freedom gundam shot off full speed, towards the Impulse pulling out it's beam saber along the way.

"I'm already on it Dearka!" Kira yelled back, while swiftly evading up over the two red beams the Impulse fired up after him.

But even while doing. That he kept on heading straight towards the Zaft green gundam. Obviously completely and utterly determined, to tear more then one or two parts of the Strike look-alike.

And once he was close enough to the other machine, he immediately trusted the saber out after the Impulse, but when it actually seemed like he was going to cut the head right straight off the other gundam. The Impulse all but hurl the javelin up towards him.

Which meant that it was only a matter of a few seconds. Before the two powerful mobile suits, was locked together in a violent looking struggle. That both of them, was doing just about everything to win.

"I'll make sure. that you are never going to cut off any more parts, on my machine ever again!" The Zaft pilot yelled determined. While he tried to push the beam saber away. So he could attack the Freedom directly.

Hearing his opponent say that. Kira narrowed his eyes a bit and was just about to say something back, when the alarm suddenly went off inside the Freedom.

And not knowing what exactly was happening now, he immediately deactivated the saber then hurried rolled to the side, so the small yet dangerous part of the javelin flew only a few centimeters past the back of the Freedom.

Not that Kira noticed that. Seeing as he was busy looking at the new threat that was coming towards him. And not really overly that interested in figuring out, what the pilot inside the Chaos was planing to do. He let both of the plasma cannons flip over the Freedom's shoulders. Then without the least bit hesitation, he fired both of them up at the green gundam.

Which was of course more then enough to make it change it's path, so the two red beams flew right under it, and knowing that there was still a threat below him Kira got the Freedom moving and took off right after the Chaos. Making it so that there was a little more distance between himself and the Impulse.

Feeling somewhat annoyed that he hadn't been able to take out the Freedom, when pretty much all of it's attention had been turned towards it's fight with the Impulse gundam. Sting could not help but curse to himself inside the Chaos. The green haired pilot, had honestly thought, that the Impulse was just the perfect distraction. While he moved in and destroyed the Freedom from behind.

"Damn it, that bastard is definitely fast!" He muttered out through his teeth, while he kept on trying to increase his distance, from the white and blue gundam. That was still chasing after him.

But it was quickly becoming obvious to him, that there was just no way, he could shake of the Freedom. That mobile suit was simply that much faster then the Chaos.

And realizing that, he got the rifle up and fired a few shots down at the Freedom. Yet the only thing he succeed in hitting, on the other machine was it's shield, and that didn't really do him much good.

And it did not really help on the small amount of panic he felt. When he saw the two plasma cannons jump forth again, where they each immediately fired a red beams directly at him.

Somewhat unsure about what to do now, he did the very first thing that enter his mind, and that of course was to try and avoid the attack.

Which was done by getting the mobile suit moving and flying full speed upwards, just as the two red beams flew under him. Yet even he knew that the reason why he had somehow manage to get uninjured away from that attack, was more because of luck then anything else.

Yet just as he again was about to try and increase the distance between them. Two shots came flying in, the first one hitting the Chaos's right side while the second one just badly missed him.

"You know what pal it's a very, very bad idea to attack my friends, from behind!" Sting heard a loud voice tell him over the radio, just as two more green beams flew right past him, which instantly made him turn a bit to the side. Where his eyes was quick to locate the source of the attacks, it was that light blue Murasame, which had been fighting along side the Freedom, all of this time.

But as much as he would just love to show this guy, who he was messing with. He knew that the Freedom was properly still following him, and he wasn't really overly excited about the idea, of having to fight both of these machines, at the same time.

Yet when he tried to take off again. The Murasame swiftly fired two or three beams in the direction he was planing to go in. And that pretty much prevent him from getting anyway.

He just had to get rid of the blue Murasame first, and knowing that he got his own rifle up and began shooting back.

Seeing that Dearka was keeping the Chaos occupied, Kira increase the Freedom's speed. He did however not get very far, before a single red Murasame dropped down in front of him, where it immediately began shooting off it's beam rifle at him.

And seriously not wanting to waste too much time, fighting this guy. When his friend was going up against a gundam all on his own. The brown haired man quickly evade up over the first two shots, then swung the beam saber forward, and disconnected the Orb mobile suit's head.

After that he put the saber away and pull out the beam rifle, which he carefully aimed up at the green gundam. And just as he saw the Chaos, get ready to once more attack his fellow pilot in the blue Murasame. Kira fired a single well placed shot, that hit the middle part of the hand-held weapon, which instantly made it blow up in the Chaos' hand.

So not having to worry about Dearka getting killed while fighting the gundam. The male Yamato again pulled out the beam saber, just as the Chaos turned and looked down at him.

And before the other mobile suit could even get it's hand haft way down to it's own saber.

Kira stopped directly in front of the other gundam where he stared intensely down at it. And without the least bit of hesitation he lifted the saber far above his head, which actually made it seem a bit like he was going to cut the green gundam straight in half.

But not all that surprising for all that really knew him. The only thing he did was cut off both arms and the head on the Chaos.

Then gave the green gundam a hard kick in it's stomach area, immediately afterwards. Thereby sending the Chaos pounding with as much force as possible, down in to the sea below them.

Once out of side. Dearka moved over beside Kira. "Good job buddy, so what do we do now?" He asked while looking around at the battle, which had again broken out in to full fury, when the moron in the Impulse had shoot after the Archangel and interrupted Cagalli's speech.

Also watching the fight. Kira didn't say anything at first. And it was only when he saw a squadron of Murasames heading for the Archangel, that he finally gave Dearka a reply.

"We have to try and keep the casualties to an absolut minimum! Perhaps if we disable enough of the Orb mobile suits, then they will finally retreat!" The brown haired man said. Quite frankly hoping, that even Yuna wasn't dumb enough to insist on continuing the battle, with a large portion of their mobile suits damage, by either him or Dearka.

Thinking briefly about those words. Dearka got a small grin on his face. "Sounds reasonable Kira. But we better take out the Impulse first, that idiot does seems quite determined to take out as many Orb mobile suits as possible!" He said loudly, while using the rifle to point down at the heavy armed gundam. Just as it destroyed one of each of the Orb type mobile suits.

Seeing that and thinking about what that guy had done when they had first arrived in the area. Kira quickly found himself agreeing with everything his blond haired friend had just said.

"You are right Dearka, lets just concentrate on getting him out of the battle for now!" The brown haired man said, in a serious tone, and once those words had left his mouth.

It did not even take a minute before both mobile suits shot full speed forward. Each of them with a beam sabers out and ready to strike.

And for all who saw them, it was pretty obvious that they where both ready to tear the Impulse gundam apart.

Seeing where Kira and Dearka was heading it did not take a genius to figure out what they where planing to do. But even with that knowledge, there was a small part of Athrun, that felt somewhat uncertain, if he really should do anything to stop them.

Frankly the only thing he actually knew for sure. Was that if he stayed there doing nothing while the Impulse got torn apart, there was a very high chance that both Rey and captain Gladys, would start questing his loyalty. And there was simply no way he could allow that to happen.

He had to remain with Zaft, until he was able to figure out, if the Chairman was telling him and the rest of the world the truth.

So while still feeling somewhat worried that he might just change his mind about the tough decision he had just made. Athrun instantly took of after his two friends. Frankly hoping that he could still reach them in time, before they got to the Impulse, and gave it whatever treatment they had in mind.

Kira might not be very keen on the idea of killing his opponent. But he was with no doubt extremely good, at reducing most types of mobile suits to nothing more then utter crap.

And with Dearka there to provide backup. It was hard for anybody to interfere in what the two of them apparently had decided to do with the Impulse. And as good a pilot as Shinn was. Athrun kinda doubt, that he would be able to handle both Kira and Dearka at the same time.

His childhood friend was highly dangerous on his own, that much was certain. But with the former Buster pilot fighting along side him. The challenge Shinn was facing was properly twice as high as normal.

Especially since Dearka didn't really have the same skills at disarming mobile suits as Kira had. Which meant that there was a minor possibility, that Dearka could end up killing Shinn, once they reached the Impulse.

And with that in mind he increased the red gundam's speed. Yet even after doing that, he was still have a tough time catching up to the two of them. They where simply flying way to fast right now.

Yet once he was in range of them, he got the rifle up and fired a quick shot after each of them. Which he frankly hoped would be enough, to give them something else to think about, other then beating the crap out of Shinn and the Impulse.

It was however only Dearka who change his course after the minor attack. The Freedom gundam continued onwards with full speed, obviously not planing on shifting his target anytime soon, and when Athrun saw the Impulse leave it's position down by the water. It did not even take a minute before the two gundams slammed their close combat weapons together, each of them fighting hard for control.

But just as Athrun was about to try and get Kira away from the Impulse. He suddenly got something else to do entirely, once he saw a beam saber coming straight at him, and one single look at it's path made it pretty clear that the wilder of the weapon was planing on thrusting it right through the Saviour's head.

Yet before that could happen he got his shield up to defend himself, while also trying to push the saber away. And it was only a second later when he heard a familiar voice over the radio.

"You just stay right there Athrun Zala, and let the two of them talk in peace. If that brat hadn't interfere when he did, Cagalli might have been able to talk a little sense in to the Orb forces. But never mind that, what about you ZALA! Haven't you returned to your senses yet?" Dearka asked loudly, while he continued pushing forward with the beam saber, clearly trying to remove the shield, so he could get to some of the more vital parts on the red gundam.

Realizing what his former team mate was trying to do. And knowing that it was properly wise not to underestimate Dearka. The blue haired Zaft pilot, tighten his hold on the shield, then slowly put the beam rifle away.

"Believe me Dearka, I have been thinking a lot about what you and Kira said to me the last time. But as long as I don't have any proof of what you are saying, then I'll remain with Zaft!" Athrun yelled back. Then reached up and took a hold on his own beam saber, which he instantly thrust out after the light blue Murasame, in a small attempt to disconnect the right arm.

He definitely didn't want to hurt Dearka. He was pretty sure that if he did that, then Miriallia and the others would never forgive him. He had after all already killed one of the people the brown haired girl had really cared about.

And he truly disliked the thought of taking away another person from her. He kinda felt like he had hurt her more then enough, already.

He might never have told anybody about it, not even to the woman he loved with all of his heart.

But deep inside there was actually a very small part of him, which was happy that Dearka had been there for Miriallia. And had helped her through the loss of what he had taken away from her. And even in someways, helped him build a friendship with the forgiving girl.

Yet as he tried so hard to figure out the best way to fight Dearka. The blue Murasame charge forward and once more slammed it's saber out after him, so the two mobile suits end up lock together.

"So you need proof huh? Zaft tried to kill the pink princess. Isn't that proof enough for you Athrun? And now that we are over on that subject, did you figure anything out about those ASH types? You moron!" The blond man yelled, just as the two transformable mobile suits broke away from each other again.

Hearing the tone of voice his friend was using. Athrun immediately came to the realization that Dearka's patience with him was running kinda low. And even before he could get out some sort of reply. He saw the Murasame pull out it's beam rifle, and fired a few shots after him, which he was forced to rely on the shield, to take care off.

"I have been looking in to it Dearka. But I can't find a single thing about it, no matter how much I search!" He shouted back, only to instantaneously throw the Saviour to the left side, just as Dearka once more fired a couple of beams after him.

But even as Athrun was evading his former team mates attacks. He again charged forward with full speed, and made another attempt to remove the Murasame's right arm. Yet much to his minor irritation, the only thing he succeeded in hitting, was the beam rifle. And that was definitely not enough, to get Dearka to retreat back to the Archangel.

And that point was further proven when Dearka grab on to the blue mobile suit's beam saber, which he immediately slammed out after him a second later. "Heh! So they are keeping it a secret, what a big surprise that is!" The blond man said, most of his voice fill with sarcasm.

Just before their sabers meet once more.

And it quickly became obvious to all that was watching them fight, that it was now a very dangerous competitor of which one of the transformable mobile suits, had the most raw strength.

Yet when Athrun began slowly pushing the Murasame back. It was pretty clear for everybody that the red mobile suit, was going to come out as the victor in the two friends little duel.

Which wasn't really something Dearka was happy about. He was determined to keep Athrun occupied, at least until Kira had enough time to take care of the Impulse gundam.

Yet knowing that if he stayed in close quarters combat much longer. There was a high chance that Athrun might do some serious damage to his Murasame, and that was definitely not a risk, he wanted to take.

There was just no way he was ready to head on back to the Archangel yet. He just did not want to sit around back there. doing nothing while his friend was out here fighting and trying to make sure that not too many people got kill in this.

And with that in mind he throw the Murasame backwards just as the Saviour's beam saber flew out after him.

But thanks to some quick thinking on his part. He swiftly got the blue mobile suit, over in to it's mobile armor. Then took off as quickly as possible, just before Athrun could cut of the left wing.

Seeing Dearka take off like that. Athrun narrowed his eyes a bit. "I wish I could tell you that wasn't truth Dearka. But I don't know anything, and that's why I just have to stay with Zaft, until I know for sure what you guys are saying is the truth!" He angrily told the blond man. Then instantly got the gundam, over in to it's mobile armor mode, and took off after Dearka, before he could get too far.

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At the same time further down near the water.

Kira fired both rail cannons down after the Blast Impulse, which quickly moved to the side, where it immediately after shoot of the two larges cannons it was carrying around. Not that Kira had much trouble avoiding that attack.

It was however pretty obvious from the Strike look-alike's movements. That it was still more ready to continue the battle. And knowing that, Kira put the beam saber away again and pull out the beam rifle instead. Which he of course did not waste anytime, in firing down after the green gundam. Frankly hoping that he could destroy the head, on the other mobile suit, so it couldn't create anymore problems for them, then it had already.

Yet with all the long range weapons on the Impulse. It was kinda difficult getting any closer to the other machine. Whoever was inside the Zaft mobile suit, was fighting in such a reckless manner. That he wouldn't even dare trying to move this fight in to a close quarters one.

It seemed very much like this guy didn't have a strategy at all. And was just shooting off whatever weapon was ready.

Not that such an extremely crazy fighting style, gave Kira much of an advantage. Truth be told, he honestly considered this pilot a much more dangerous opponent then a normal one.

There was just no way for him to tell where exactly the beams was going to hit. And what this nut case inside the Impulse was going to do next.

"Damn, I guess that I just have to wait until his machine runs out of power" the brown haired teen muttered a tiny bit annoyed.

Knowing that with the Neutron Jammer Canceler install the Freedom. The green gundam down by the sea, would run out of power much faster then his own machine. Especially if the pilot of the Impulse, kept on continuously using the weapons like that.

Fighting in such a manner. was something that with no doubt, took a great deal of the gundam's power. Not that his opponent seemed to care all that much about that. It was almost like the only thing the Zaft pilot had on his mind at the moment, was to shoot him down.

Not that Kira was going to make that an easy task for him to accomplish.

But while he kept on smoothly moving away from all of the attacks. He took a quick glance over the rest of the battlefield, where he could easily tell, that he could not afford to spend too much time messing around with the Impulse. There was already a great deal of Murasames heading both towards the Archangel, and the Minerva.

And at least for now. Kira was absolutely determined, to defend both of the ships. But perhaps someday in the near future, that might change.

It wasn't like he really knew anybody on board the Minerva, so he honestly did not care all that much about it. The only reason he was willing to protect the Zaft ship, was simply because, Cagalli had asked him to do so.

But with Zaft gunning for his wife. He KNEW that he wouldn't really have a whole lot of trouble, using the Freedom's awesome power, on the Minerva.

Yet that was not the reason why they had traveled all the way there.

They where here to stop the Orb forces, not learn them a hand. With everything Yuna, and the rest of the Seirans had done up to this point. Kira was seriously starting to dislike that family of powermad tyrants, quite a bit. Which was seriously more then enough reason for him, to try and stop whatever crazy scheme, the Seiran family had concoct, to gain control of Orb.

But as he was busy making that small list of things, that he did not like. A small bunch of beams from the Impulse, immediately made him add that machine on the third spot. Just below the Minerva and the Seiran family.

"Damn it! Will you knock it of already! I don't have time to mess around with you!" He yelled out after the pilot in the green mobile suit. As he once more fired both of the rail cannons, downwards after the Impulse, which hurried evade the attacks.

Then a minute later flew full speed up towards him with the javelin out. "Heh what a shame, guess that teach you not to get in my way!" Kira heard a loud voice shout over from the other machine.

Not that he paid it much attention to it, as he reached down and took a hold on the right beam saber, which he promptly slammed out after the Impulse, while using the shield to counter the javelin, before it could do any kind of damage to the Freedom.

But as crude and savages as their duel looked for all spectates. It did not take all that many seconds, before the two mobile suits once more broke away from each other. The Impulse falling downward towards the ocean, while the Freedom stayed up in the air.

That however did not prevent any of them from taking aim at each other. Both of them evidently planing on continuing this fight in long distance.

Yet before they could get even one shot off, there was an enormous splash behind the Impulse, as a certain blue coloured gundam shoot right out of the water where it instantaneously spread out it's two fins and got ready to shoot the green mobile suit in the back.

Seeing that. Kira didn't hesitate one bit, about shifting his target away from the Zaft mobile suit, he had been fighting against these last few minutes. And over at the Abyss, which he hurried fired a couple of beams at, both of them hitting the chest area on the blue water type mobile suit. Thereby knocking the machine completely of balance. so all of it's attacks flew quite far away from the Impulse.

Not totally sure if this whole thing wasn't some sort of trap. Shinn was a bit uncertain if it was wise of him to see what was back there. But when he thought about the huge splash and the few beams, that had flown over him not long ago.

He decided to take and take a small look behind him. And when he did that, he of course immediately noticed the Abyss, which was turned in such a way that it seemed almost impossible for it to do anything right now.

And with the deep hate he had developed towards the three stolen gundams. There was definitely no way, he was going to let this opportunity slide by him. He quickly lift the javelin and throw it with as much force as possible at the Abyss.

Making the spear like weapon fly directly at the place, where the cockpit was located on the blue mobile suit.

"You damn bastards...aahhhh!" Was the only things the two other pilots who witness all of this heard. Just as the javelin embed itself in the Abyss, clearly harming whoever was inside the blue gundam greatly.

But as the Abyss fell back down in to the ocean, they each heard one last thing. "I really hope you are ok Stella" the voice said. Even true Auel's memories of her had been removed, shortly after she had ran away.

So after telling his two opponents that small wish, the gundam slowly sank down in to the deep blue abyss, it had been named after.

And it was only briefly after that, when a big explosion could be seen down in the water. Which made it absolutely obvious, that this was the last time anybody would ever, see the Abyss gundam.

Truly happy that they would no longer have to worry about the Abyss. Shinn fell slowly got back down to the ocean surface and looked up at the Freedom. That bastard might just have saved his life just now.

But it was not like he had actually asked him to do that. So he was completely determined to give the blue and white gundam, the exact same treatment, which he had just given to the Abyss only a few seconds ago.

Yet as he got the beam rifle out and was about to open fire on the Freedom, a small alarm could be heard thought the cockpit, as the Impulse gundam lost the rest of it's power.

Finally moving his eyes away from the place where the Abyss had disappeared. Kira watched the Impulse a bit, while slightly wondering if he made the right decision about helping this guy out.

It really didn't seem like he was overly grateful for his assistance. Truth be told the brat's movemenst made it pretty clear, that he was still more then ready to keep on fighting him.

And when he saw him grab on to the beam rifle and aim it straight at him. The brown haired man narrowed purple both of his eyes slightly. While he got ready to continue his battle with the highly annoying green mobile suit.

Yet once he saw it run out of power he let out a small sigh of relief.

Then quickly turned around and took off in the direction of the Archangel. Determined to get rid the many Murasames, which was presently attacking the white space ship.

And once he was in range of them. Kira immediately activated the target lock system.

So it was only a matter of a few moments, before the Freedom was firing almost every single weapon it possess. Destroying the more vital parts, such as the head and arms, on every single mobile suit, anywhere near the Archangel.

Not one of them able to do anything to defend themselves against the Freedom's extremely brutal assault. But even true it could not in anyway be denied, that the many beams looked highly deadly, not even one of the Orb pilots was kill in the attack.

"Thank you Kira, it was getting difficult keeping them all at bay. But you better hurry up and help Dearka. He is having a tough time, dealing with Athrun!" Murrue said in a loud serious tone.

While screen up on the bridge showed the fight between the two former members of the Le Creuset team. And one small look at the battle, was all that was need for most people to tell, that the blue Murasame was in trouble right now.

Hearing that. Kira got an somewhat angry look in his eyes.

As he took a fast look around the battlefield, where he was quick to find the two different colour transformable mobile suits, that was fighting with each other about a half mile away from him.

And one small look at them, made it kinda obvious that the red gundam had the advantage in this fight. And that Dearka was just barely able to keep the Saviour and Athrun away. It was especially noticeable by the way Dearka was moving around, that he would prefer to keep the battle in long distance. But was for some unknown reason not able to do that.

"I'll go help him right now. You guys be careful while I'm gone!" He said loudly, then let the Freedom spread out it's ten long wings, and took of full speed towards his two dueling friends.

Just as he and the rest of the people gather on the Archangel's bridge heard Miriallia shout out a small grateful thank you, which was more then enough for all of them to tell, that she was a bit concerned about her boyfriend right now.

Not that any of them actually believe, that Athrun would do anything to seriously hurt Dearka. But even knowing that, the girl just couldn't help but look after the blue mobile suit, with a worried gaze in both of her eyes.

It did not take Kira many minute to reach the two fighting mobile suits. "ATHRUN!" He cry out out in a loud angry tone, while at the same time firing a few beams at the red gundam, making it back away from the Murasame.

Seeing that Kira hurried put the rifle away, then grabbed on to the beam saber, which meant that it took only a half second before the two gundam thrust their weapons together.

After that nothing really happened, as the two mobile suit where just hanging there, almost looking like they where actually glaring at each other. But it wasn't like they did that for long, before the two friends began struggling to push the other's weapon away.

And finally after what seemed like an eternity, they broke apart and instantly slammed their sabers together one, two, three times more. Before they again got stuck in a intense lock, each mobile suit practically wrestling to overpower the other, neither one of the two friends willing to give up, both seemed more determined then ever before, to beat each other.

But as they where doing that Dearka was watching them, with both of his eyes spread as wide as possible.

He just could not help but feel a bit uncertain, about what he should do now.

He knew that it would be almost completely suicide getting in between the two of them, they where clearly fighting even more serious now, then the last time where Lacus and Waltfeld had ran off with that shuttle and the Gaia gundam. Apparently both of them where starting to run out of patient with one another.

It was just about that time, when the two gundams swiftly pull away from each other, and Kira finally broke the silence and began talking in a tone that left little doubt about how serious he took this.

"You go back to the Archangel Dearka! I'll stay here and take care of Athrun!" The brown haired man said determined.

And without waiting for a response, he let the two plasma cannons fly over the Freedom's shoulders, immediately firing them of after the Saviour, obviously trying to destroy the head, on the red mobile suit.

But before the beams could hit the Saviour. Athrun quickly dropped down under the attack, then charge full speed towards the Freedom, of course still with the right beam saber out and ready to strike.

Which meant that it did not take that many seconds, before the two gundams meet in midair, both pilots using all of their abilities to stay ahead of the other.

"All right Kira! I'll see you once you get back, good luck!" Dearka said, then got the Murasame over in to it's mobile armor mode and began making his way back to the Archangel. Sincerely hoping that his two friends, wouldn't do anything they where going to regret in the end.

He honestly did not want to be the one to tell, Cagalli or Lacus. That Kira and Athrun had gotten seriously hurt, while fighting each other.

Yet once Dearka was gone, the two other pilots continued on with their utmost dangerous fencing match. Each beam saber sparkling brightly, whenever they made contact with each other.

They did however not fight like that for long. Before Athrun began talking in the most reasonable tone he could manage under these circumstances.

"Kira I have been thinking a lot about what you and Dearka have been telling me. But I'm still not sure, that I don't believe that the Chairman and Zaft ain't working for peace. So I have to stay with Zaft until I know the truth!" He said.

Realizing that Athrun was starting to questing Zaft's intention Kira smile briefly, before he began telling his childhood friend his honest opinion about everything he had just said.

"Just how exactly are you planing on finding the truth Athrun? The Chairman has already tried to have Lacus killed once. And if it's discovered that you are having doubts about your loyalty. I frankly don't think that man would hesitate even a second about ordering your death too. That man is far more dangerous then you think Athrun!" Kira said in one go, only getting some air back down in to his lungs after telling his friend all of that.

Thinking briefly about his future brother-in-law's words. Athrun knew Kira was right.

If he started showing signs of disobedience. There was a very high possibility, that the Chairman might try something to get rid of him. Especially with Rey watching his every move, with him around it would definitely be far more difficult, digging up the proof he needed.

"You are right Kira, but that's just a risk I have to take. Yet if he really is trying to do something along the lines of what Rau Le Creuset was trying to do. Then you can be damn sure, that I'm going to help you guys stop him!" Athrun said, sounding very determined about that.

Again getting a small smile on his lips, which quickly disappeared when the two mobile suit broke away from each other. "I'm really glad to hear that Athrun. So what do we do now? It would look kinda suspicious, if we stop fighting now?" Kira asked, while he hurried lifted the saber and slammed it out after his friend, that counter that attack with the shield.

Looking a bit at the Freedom that was hanging just directly in front of him. Athrun couldn't in anyway deny that Kira's words didn't make sense to him.

There was just no way they could stop this fight now, they had to keep going for now. At least until they could come up with a way, to make it seem like one of them had won.

If they where to suddenly stop this battle between them now, then Rey would definitely tell the Chairman about it. And there was simply no way that could be allowed to happen.

"I guess we got no other choice then to keep going Kira, lets do our best to make it look as realistic as possible" Athrun said.

Then hurried moved away from the blue and white gundam, only to thrust the saber out after it a second later. Which Kira was quick to response to by using his own weapon to counter the attack.

But as brutal as the battle looked in distance.

Neither one of the pilots was fighting serious anymore. They where each holding back, while trying hard to make it seem like, they where doing just about everything they could think of, to defeat the other.

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Just after the Freedom had taken off.

Shinn watched now in seed mode, as the extremely powerful mobile suit, took out so many Murasames in one go.

"Damn it, I'm seriously starting to hate that guy!" He muttered angrily, then yelled out for the Minerva to send him the Force Silhouette and fire the Deuterion beam so his mobile suit could be recharged.

Once that task was over and done with. He immediately took off towards a squadron of Orb mobile suits, that was hastily approaching the Minerva. And once he got close enough to them, he lifted the rifle and fired a single well placed shot at the closed Murasame. Taking it out before it had the opportunity, to get off any of the warheads which it was most likely carrying.

Yet when he did that, two of the red and white mobile suits instantly transformed, and began shooting back at him. Apparently hoping that they where enough to stop him from destroying anymore Orb mobile suits.

But seeing as he was already quite pissed of after his battle with the Freedom. The only thing these guys actually succeed in doing, was getting on his nerves and make him even more angry.

"Just die you brain dead fools!" He shouted loudly.

Then pulled out the beam saber and slammed straight in to the side of the first Murasame, cutting it in two. Thereby making sure that whoever was inside that machine, would never see his family and friends ever again.

Not that Shinn cared much about that. He just turned his attention towards the other Murasame, that hadn't done anything since he took out it's partner.

Seeing how easy his commanding officer had been killed by the Impulse gundam. The guy inside the second Murasame, was somewhat uncertain, if he should continue fighting with the Zaft mobile suit. He really didn't want to die now, there was still so many things he wanted to experience.

Yet before he could make up his mind about what he should do now.

He saw the green eyed sinister looking mobile suit charging right at him. Obviously preparing to strike him down, in the same merciless fashion, which his commanding officer had been kill in.

And knowing that it was pretty much impossible for him to survive against this guy in melee combat, he hurried did the very first thing that enter his mind which was to get out of there as possible.

So he got the Murasame over in to it's mobile armor mode, and flew full speed away from the Impulse. Frankly hoping that this would be enough for him, to get a little distance between himself and the gundam.

He did however not get all that far, before a bunch of machine gun shots was fired at him.

And no matter how hard he tried to escape the attacks. They soon tore apart the engine, and send him swirling straight downwards towards the ocean. Which he crashed full speed in to, before he could even let out a scream.

Happy to know that bastard wasn't going to create anymore trouble for them. Shinn immediately took off, after a one legged Murasame, which he knew had been the one to injure Lunamaria, and make a lot of damage on the Minerva.

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While all of this was happening outside.

Todaka stood on the Takemikazuchi's bridge still watching the battle with an angry frown on his face. Which grew slightly larger, when he turned his head a bit to the side, and took a small glance over at Yuna. Who was grinning like a complete and total idiot.

'Damn, how the heck can he continue smirking like that? Don't that spoiled fool realize how many Orb citizens have been lost in this! I have to find someway to put a stop to all of this!' The grey haired man thought determined, as he took a look over at Amagi, that slowly nodded a single time, to show him that no matter what he did now, he would support him.

Truly happy to know that. Todaka let both of his sad eyes ran over the rest of the people up there. Where he of course immediately noticed that some of them where just as cheerful about this as Yuna.

But it did please the grey haired man slightly, when he saw that there was a great deal more that looked just as broken-hearted as he himself was. And it was obvious by the way many of them kept glaring over at Yuna. That they where starting to question the sanity in all of this.

And even true he was happy that not all of them where willing to follow Yuna and the rest of the Seiran family blindly. He knew that if he and Amagi where to try and gain control of the Takemikazuchi with force. There was a possibility that many of the people gather up there, would take Yuna's side in it, there wasn't really anybody that liked the idea of mutiny, no matter what kind of circumstances it was under.

Yet he knew that if he didn't think of something soon. Even more Orb citizens would end up losing their lives in this. It would however not be any good if the people who believed in Lady Cagalli, lost their faithfulness because he made a wrong decision.

But before he had the necessary time to figure out what to do, and what kind of consequences his actions would have. He saw one of their Kuraomikami class being sunk by a well placed shoot from the Minerva's Isolde.

Seeing that and knowing how many people that was on board that vessel. He finally came to a conclusion about what was needed to be done. The best thing for all of them, was that this fight got brought to an end as quickly possible.

Even if it meant doing the absolute opposites of what Lady Cagalli wish for, by destroying the Minerva or sacrificing the Takemikazuchi.

"I truly do hope that someday you will be able to forgive me for this Lady Cagalli" the deeply sadden man whispered softly to himself. Not realizing that his best friend since the academy, had heard everything he had just said.

And even true Amagi had his suspicion about what Todaka was going to do. It was still frankly somewhat of a shock to him. when his old friend yelled out for them to increase speed, and head directly for the Minerva.

But even with every fiber of his being screaming for him to protest. He kept his mouth firmly squeezed shut, there was however someone else up there who was more then willing to share his opinion, about this sudden drastic change in their strategy.

"Do we really have TO? The Minerva still does look quite dangerous. Even with all that damage we have inflict on it!" Yuna said, sounding very much like he was just on the verge of going in to a panic. His expression made it completely clear, for both of the commanding officers up there, that he was having a very difficult time understanding what was going on.

Yet neither Todaka or Amagi really felt like going in to a long detail explanation.

Todaka just turned and glared over at him with a somewhat unreadable gazes in both of his eyes. Yet if anybody bother taking a closer look at him, they would quite easily be able to tell, that there was a great deal of anger simmering just underneath the surface.

"We can't stay back here any longer. If it's truly necessary for Orb's future to destroy the Minerva, then lets go do it right now!" The grey haired captain said in a deep determined voice. Then once more turned his attention out towards the battle and the Archangel.

Just as the white space ship fired one of it's Valiants down in front of another Kuraomikami class cutting it off before it could get in shooting range of the Minerva.

Somewhat taken back by the tone of voice Todaka was using, Yuna slowly turned and took a look out at the grey Zaft ship in the distance, where he could easily tell that many of the ship's weapons was still function as they where suppose to.

But before he could get his mouth open and start to complain about that. Todaka cut him of by telling the crew to open fire.

Which the crew up there immediately did. And no matter what Yuna said and did now, most of the people up there pretty much gave him a cold shoulder, they where all far to occupied following whatever order Todaka was giving them.

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Meanwhile on the Archangel.

Cagalli was shocked to see the Takemikazuchi heading straight for the Minerva, obviously getting ready to kamikaze the grey space ship.

"Wha...what! In the world are they doing? Do Yuna actually believed that sacrificing our flagship is going to help Orb?" The blond woman asked. Trying her best to keep the many tears that was treating to leave her eyes back. It honestly wouldn't resolve anything if she started crying now. She just had to come up with something that could convince the enormous aircraft carrier to stop it's assault.

But in the end she knew that the only thing she could do was ask her brother to try and stop the ship before it was to late. And with that decision made she took a fast look out of the window after the Freedom, and found it fighting with the Saviour not that far away from them.

So after asking Miriallia to establish contact with her brother's mobile suit. Which meant that it did not take many seconds before Kira's face appeared up on the main monitor. That however did not mean, that he was paying a whole lot of attention to them. He was far more busy at the moment pretending to be beating the crap out of Athrun and the Saviour.

And even true she was deeply concerned about what the Takemikazuchi. It still sadden her greatly, that her future husband to be, and her brother had to fight like this again.

She knew that it had been unbelievable difficult for both of them, having to fight each other in the last war. And she was absolutely certain, that this time around it was no different.

And just the sight of their two gundams meet in mid-air, was more then enough to make the blond woman narrow her eyes a bit.

And seeing as she wasn't even close to realizing that it had been quite a while now since the two of them had stopped taking the fight serious. She promise herself, that the next time she had the opportunity she was going to give each of them a smack on the head, for all the stupid things they where doing right now.

But knowing that now was far from the best time, to be making plans for the future. She began telling her brother what was going on in a very loud tone.

"Kira! The Takemikazuchi it's heading right for the Minerva! Please do something I don't want to see either of the ships being destroyed!" She sobbed now not doing anything to hide, that she was more then ready to start crying any moment now. Yet as she told Kira all of that, she didn't realized, that her fiancé, had also been able to hear everything she had just said.

So as the two gundams slammed their weapons together one more time. Both Kira and Athrun took a look down at the Takemikazuchi, which was clearly planing on using itself to sink the Minerva. Not that the grey Zaft ship was making that an easy task to carry out, it was pretty much shooting continuously with whatever weapon it had ready to fire.

And once Athrun saw a single Murasame kamikaze in to the side of the Minerva, destroying the Isolde in the process, a deep unsatisfied vein slowly appeared on his forehead.

If anybody asked him about what he thought was the most illogical thing in war. And if he had to tell the honest truth. He would definitely say that the whole kamikaze thing, was properly one of those things he would never be able to understand. He honestly didn't get. what was going through the mind of the pilots who did something like that.

But what Athrun didn't know was that Kira was thinking almost the exact same thing. Yet after a long moment or two. It was the Freedom's pilot, that brought the brief yet tense silence to an end.

"Athrun we have to do something quickly or else both ships are going to end at the bottom of the sea!" Kira said, after cutting the communication between himself and the Archangel. So Cagalli wouldn't know that he was actually talking with Athrun right now, he frankly thought that it was best to wait until after the battle was over to tell her about, what Athrun was planing to do.

Knowing that his best friend was right Athrun lift his head ,and looked back over at the Freedom. Still thinking as hard as humanly possible about what in the would he was suppose to do now.

"You are right Kira, we have to do something. But it would look quite suspicious, if we suddenly where to stop fighting now. And it would look even more strange if I where to help out the Takemikazuchi, that would be a clear sign that I'm not as loyal to Zaft as I'm pretending to be" Athrun said seriously.

Then hurried fired the Saviour's two plasma cannons directly towards his best friend's mobile suit.

Seeing the two red beams coming right at him. Kira quickly moved slightly to the side and fired the rifle back a few times. But even as the brown haired teenage was doing that. He did not waste anytime in asking Athrun, what he would suggest they did now.

And even true he had no trouble at all seeing the logic in the response. It still came as somewhat of a shock to him.

"Kira you have to destroy the Saviour! It wouldn't be strange at all, if you where to help out both ships. And that way it would seem like I'm still completely loyal to all of Zaft's ideas!" Athrun Zala said, not really happy that there was no other way to resolve this, then to sacrifice the Saviour.

Completely taken back by what Athrun had just told him to do.

Kira leand slightly backwards in the Freedom's cockpit, where he slowly blinked an unknown number of times in utter bewilderment, while both of his purple eyes ran over the extremely powerful red gundam, he had been going up against for who knew how many minutes.

"Are you absolutely sure that's really what you want me to do Athrun?" The brown haired man asked in a small tone. Realizing that if he where to destroy his friend's mobile suit now, he might be taking away Athrun's only means of escape. If a time came, where he was in the need of having to leave the Minerva in a hurry.

Yet if he knew Athrun right. He had properly already realized that, and when Kira heard the next few worlds leave Athrun's mouth. He made the decision to go ahead with the destruction of the Saviour gundam.

"It's not really something I want to do Kira. But we don't have any other choice, either both ships gets destroy or youdestroy the Saviour, beside I don't want Cagalli to have both of those ships on her conscience. Especially not when all of this, is Yuna's fault. So please go help her Kira!" Athrun said in a very loud tone, while taking a brief glance over at the very ship his pregnant fiancée was on.

Looking a bit longer at the red mobile suit, Kira let out a small breath after a few second. "All right Athrun, I'll do what you say. I'm really sorry that it had to come to this!" He said in a small tone.

Just as the two gundams slammed their sabers together one more time, yet while they where struggling like that for a moment or two. Kira closed both of his eyes for a brief second, and went over in to seed mode.

After that the two machines quickly separated from the fierced lock that they had just been in. Yet before they could get to far apart. Kira swiftly moved forward again and thrust the saber straight through the Saviour's head.

"Hold on tight Athrun!" Kira warned his best friend, then dropped the shield and took a hold on the other beam saber.

And not wanting to let this whole thing drag on any longer then necessary. Kira lift both sabers and got ready to give the red mobile suit the final blow. So without any kind of hesitation, he swiftly swung each saber out after the Saviour, disconnecting first the legs and then the uper part of the body, making it so that the only thing that was left intact, was the cockpit.

But it was only when he saw Nicol catch the Saviour's cockpit, that he let out yet another small breath.

Only to immediately turn around, and began making his way straight towards the Takemikazuchi. Sincerely hoping that he could somehow stop the Sword Impulse gundam from making to much damage, on the enormous war ship.

Yet when Kira got closer to the ship. He could easily tell that the ship was getting lower and lower in the water, which was a pretty obvious sign that it was slowly sinking down in to the bottomless ocean below it.

And a single look at the tiny group of M1 Astrays, that was fighting with the Impulse on the Takemikazuchi's deck, was more then enough for him tell, that those guys would not be able to keep the Zaft pilot distract for long.

So not wanting to let this guy kill the evacuating crew, that was already busy trying to get at least some of the lifeboats down in to the water. Kira carefully took aim at the red gundam, and was just about to open fire on it, when suddenly a unfamiliar voice yelled out a loud warning to him.

"Behind you Freedom!" The guy shouted.

Which of course instantly made Kira turn around just the the Minerva fired both of it's Tristans straight at him. Seemingly hoping, that would be all that was needed, to make him back away from the Impulse.

Not that he had an overly difficult time evading the attacks, but as he was doing that, the Impulse pilot took out the very Murasame, which had warned him only a few seconds ago.

Yet before he could turn his attention back towards the other gundam, both Nicol and the white ZAKU on the Minerva began shooting continuously at him.

And with the grey Zaft ship assisting them, they where able to force him to turn his concentration away from the Impulse and over on them instead. And that pretty much left the Strike copy, to continue it's completely merciless destruction, down on the Takemikazuchi's deck.

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At the same time on the Takemikazuchi's bridge.

Yuna was finally let out the deep panic he had been feeling ever since they started heading for the Minerva. "Todaka would you stop standing there enjoying the view and do something? If this continues then they are going to win, and that will ruin everything!" He yelled. Then grap on to the grey haired man's collar, shaking him violently, like he actually thought that was going to make the captain answer him even faster.

Todaka however didn't say anything as he stood there looking at the hysterical Seiran.

"You know that I really despise you. There are so many people that have lost their lives here. And the only thing you are thinking about is destroying the Minerva. You ain't even the least bit grateful for all of these soldiers sacrifice. If anybody where to ask me you should have been the first one to die here, you spoiled little brat!" He yelled not caring one bit about all of those shocked looks the crew was giving him.

But seeing as Yuna frankly didn't believe that he had done anything wrong. He was just about to open his mouth, and tell the disrespectful man, that those soldiers had done their job, and that he had nothing to feel guilty about.

Yet before he could even get his mouth half open a hard punch flew in and hit him straight in the face.

"You and your father, are nothing more then fools, that knows next to nothing about what war is really about! The only thing you Seirans are concerned about, is trying to gain more power through all of this!" Todaka said in a loud angry tone, as he reached down and pick Yuna up from the floor.

And once he got eye contact with the Seiran he began speaking to him in a low tone. "You might not feel any kind of obligation towards the men and women who has lost their lives here. But I certainly do, and I know that Lord Uzumi would have done so too. So if you don't get out of here in the next couple of minutes, I swear that I'll do more then just punch you!" He explained, before dropping him again.

Looking angrily up at the captain. Yuna slowly reached up and used his sleeve to dry away the few drops of blood, that was running from his nose. And as tempt as he was to protest and telling Todaka that he could go to hell.

Yet once he realized, that there was more then a few people up there, who looked more then ready to beat him up. He decided against it, as he slowly got back up on his unsteady feet, and hurried left the bridge without saying a single word to anybody.

Once he was gone. Todaka turned and took a look out at the Impulse just as it throw one of it's beam boomerangs up after two Astrays, taking them both out, before they could do anything to defend themselves.

After that the gundam got it's beam rifle out and began shooting up after a couple of Murasames that was trying just about everything to stop the gundam.

But it was completely obvious that they did not have the necessary strength to accomplish that. The only thing they would be able to do, was slow the red mobile suit down a bit.

And knowing that their time was short, the grey haired man again looked back at the crew. "You guys should all hurry up and evacuate. None of you deserve to go down with the Takemikazuchi! I however will have to stay here, there is simply no way that I can just leave the ship!" He said loudly, getting more then a few shocked gasp from the people around him.

Yet it was not all that surprisingly Amagi that first got his mouth working again. "You can't be serious Todaka! We...I can't just run off and leave you here, I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I did that!" The black haired man said loudly.

Only to continue telling his friend, that if he insist on staying there. Then he too would be staying behind along with him.

Hearing his old friend's words. Todaka looked sadly over at him where he instantly gave him a sad smile.

"You really are a good friend Amagi, and I'm truly grateful for the offer. But it's not in anyway your responsibility to go down with the ship, it's mine. So hurry up and get moving, the few mobile suits out there, wouldn't be able to keep the Impulse busy for long!" He said. Before giving his long time best friend, a hard shove towards the door. Sincerely hoping that would get him and the rest of the crew to leave.

He really didn't want this to drag on too long. He would honestly have preferred that Amagi and the others, would just leave in the same quiet fashion, Yuna had just left in not that long ago.

But he knew Amagi well enough to know that he wouldn't just leave without arguing a bit more.

And when he saw him get ready to say something back to him, he hurried cut him off. "If you are going to be that stubborn about, then would you please do your old friend a small favour?" He asked. Only to immediately after grab on to one of the many chairs up there, just as a large explosion shook the entire ship.

But even true it was incredibly difficult to remain standing through that, both of the friends was somehow able to stay on their feet, while a hellish looking orange glow was rapidly starting to spread all over on the ships deck, from all the things the Zaft gundam had destroyed.

Glaring angrily at the very person which he had been friends with, ever since the very first day he had enter the Orb military academy. Amagi really didn't get how the hell he could be asking for favours at a time like this.

And even true Amagi could not in anyway deny that he was somewhat tempered to give his friend, the exact same treatment that he had give that stupid Seiran only a few moments ago. Yet when he noticed the deeply serious expression on Todaka's face, he decided against it.

"What is it you damn idiot? What the hell is it you want me to do?" He asked not bothering hiding any of the tears that was running down his face.

He did not no how to describe it all. But those few seconds where he wait to hear what his old friend was going to ask him, was properly the most terrible once in his entire life.

Just who in their right mind would look forward to hear a person you cared about last request.

Hearing Amagi speak to him like that, made the sad smile on Todaka's face grew a little bigger. Before he started telling the black haired man, what he wished for him to do.

"I would like for you my old friend to go to the Archangel, together with everybody that feels like the path Orb is on now ,is wrong. Once over there, I want you all to assist that ship and Lady Cagalli in bringing peace back to our world. Precisely like they did two years ago!" He said, while thinking briefly about the last war and the kid he had help out after both of his parents and his sister had been kill.

He did however not get much time to think about Shinn. Before Amagi stepped over and gave him a friendly hug.

"You...you really are a dumb bastard Todaka, you know that right!" Amagi said, doing his best to keep at least a little control over all of his conflicting emotions.

Truly realizing how hard this was on his old friend. Todaka nodded a single time in agreement. "Yeah I know Amagi. Now hurry up and get out of here, before I dump you all in to a lifeboat myself" he said, while giving his friend a small hug back.

After that. He turned around, and looked out at the Impulse, that was still busy with it's rampages out on the deck. But even as he stood there watching the overly brutal mobile suit, he heard everybody else quietly leave the bridge.

"It would have been kind nice, if I could have seen the peaceful world. Which I'm sure that the Archangel and her crew, are going to make for all of us" he whispered softly to himself.

Not once taking his eyes away from the red gundam.

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Outside Shinn was slowly making his way through the huge flames that was surrounding him from all sides, not that he cared overly much about that. The only thing on his mind at the moment, was to demolish the enormous warship's bridge, and make the ship's crew pay for even thinking about treating the Minerva. Every single one of those Orb bastards, still left on the ship deserved a one way ticket to hell.

And he was utterly determined to be the one to give it to them. Which meant that it did not take him long to reach the bridge, where he realized that there was a single lonely figure standing in the window looking out at him.

And knowing that there was simply no way this guy could get away from his rightful punishment, made a small wicked smirk appear on Shinn's face, as he throw both beam swords up over his head, and without the least bit hesitation he slammed the two weapons with full forces down in to the Takemikazuchi's bridge.

Not realizing that he was feeling glad and satisfied over the fact. That he had just killed the very person, that had been like a new father to him, and had helped him out so much two years ago.

Actually the only thing on the boy's mind right now, was to get back to the Minerva and watch as this worthless piece of crap, slowly disappeared down in to the ocean where it belonged, together with all the other crap down there.

So after taking a brief glance around at all the destruction he had cost. He took of from the hastily sinking warship, not all that keen on the thought, of going down along with that vessel.

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Meanwhile not that far above him.

Dearka slowly made his way over to the Freedom and looked down at the Takemikazuchi.

"Damn it all, this was not how it was suppose to end!" He growled out in a unhappy tone. As he turned and looked directly at the Impulse. Truth was, that he was slightly tempted to go after that machine and beat the crap out of it.

But he knew that there was no way he could win, against the Impulse armed only with a beam saber and nothing else. And he definitely didn't want to lost his life by trying to do something so utterly reckless and crazy.

And with that in mind he slowly deactivated the saber and placed it where it belonged on the Murasame.

Yet as he was doing that Kira was slowly moving his eyes over all of the lifeboats, that was drifting around down by the Takemikazuchi. He might be far from pleased with this outcome.

But he was glad to know that at least some of the crew had manage to escape from the Impulse's completely merciless slaughter. He really didn't understand how that guy was actually able to live with himself, after killing some many people.

That was surely one of those things that was still bothering Kira greatly, whenever he thought about the first Bloody Valentine War.

He did however not think about that for long. Before he noticed, that a few of the lifeboats and a small squadron of Murasames, was now heading in the direction of the Archangel.

And not knowing what those guys was up to. Kira turned and looked over at Dearka's Murasame, where he of course instantly noticed that his friend was still quite busy watching, as the front of the Takemikazuchi disappeared in to the ocean, never to be seen again.

"We better get back to the Archangel Dearka, I'm a bit curious about what those Murasames are planing to do!" He said, while taking one last glance over at the red gundam, that had been mostly responsible for the destruction of Orb's flagship.

Yet there was also another reason why he wanted to hurry back there. He was almost completely certain, that Cagalli was totally crushed over this, and he did not want her be alone at a time like this.

Hearing Kira's words. Dearka slowly turned his attention away from the disaster and over at the Freedom. "Yeah you are right Kira, this is far from the most cheerful scene to be watching. And I frankly wouldn't mind getting away from this place as quickly as possible" Dearka said, before he slowly turned around and took a small glance at the Minerva, seriously wondering if helping that damn ship, had really been worth all of this.

But when he saw the Freedom take off. He hurried shook those thought, away and took off after his friend, still trying to decide if he thought that they should continue helping out the Minerva like this.

Yet in the end, he really didn't see much point to it. The rest of the Orb fleet would definitely return back home, after the lost of their flagship. And he quite frankly doubt, that even Yuna, was dumb enough to continue doing battle with the Minerva. After losing the Takemikazuchi.

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And while Kira and Dearka was making their way back to the Archangel.

Athrun was standing beside the sad remains of the Saviour. Not that he was paying much attention to that right now. He was far more busy watching the Takemikazuchi slowly disappearing down in to the sea.

That was pretty much all he could do right now. Even with all the chaos and confusion going on around him. But finally after a few long tense seconds, he let out a loud curse.

"To hell with it all, why did this have to happen?" He growled. Then turned around and began making his way towards the entrance to the Minerva, not caring one bit about the looks the crew out there was giving him.

Fortunately for him practically all of them thought, he was complaining about the Saviour. Not the destruction of the Takemikazuchi.

And once the door flew shut behind him somebody up there could not help but voice his opinion on this.

"Man he seemed totally pissed. Guess we can't really blame him for that, after what happened to the Saviour!" Vino said, while he continued doing whatever he could think of to help out.

Yet before Yolant had the chance to give him a reply. The mostly brown haired mechanic received a hard smack at the back of his head.

"You two clowns are not up here to talk. You can always do that once we are done, now hurry up and get moving Vino!" Madd said loudly, making sure that both of the boys knew, that he would not tolerate that they where wasting time talking, at a time such as this.

Which meant that it did not take many seconds, before they where once more totally occupied with helping out as much as they could.

To be continued.


	43. Chapter 43

Chapter 43

It was the day after the battle at extremely tough battle at Crete.

And even true most of the Minerva was full of activity.

There was one person that was sitting quietly all by himself, trying hard to solve a crossword puzzle. Nicol had found in the room, when he had first arrive there. Not that he had much luck with that.

To tell the truth he was far more busy keeping an eye on the red haired girl, that had been sleeping so calmly, ever since she got injured in yesterday's battle. And as many times as the ship's doctor had reassure him, that she wasn't in any kind of real danger, and that she only needed a lot of rest to get better. He still couldn't help but worry about her.

Especially when he thought back to the conversation he had been having with her before the battle had started. He might still not have the first clue about how exactly he felt about the whole dating thing, she had been talking with him about.

Yet he could honestly say that he did not want to lose her. She was after all one of the most important people in his life. And if there was somebody out there, who did something like this to her again. There would definitely be hell to pay, that much was certain.

He just wished that he had somebody to talk with about the dating thing. If she where to start asking him about that again. He honestly had no idea about what he was suppose to say to her. It really would have be easier for him, to make a decision about this, if he had at the very least tried to be out on a real date.

Unfortunately his knowledge about that subject was kinda low, seeing as he had never really considered trying to go after another girl, after Mayura had been murder by the Calamity.

Yet when he gave it some thought he realized. that there was simply no way, that Mayura would have wanted him to go around feeling depressed and guilty about not being able to save her, for the rest of his life.

She would have wanted him to be happy no matter what. But even knowing that, he was still kinda blank about what to say to Lunamaria. And he frankly wished that he had somebody he could go talk with about the whole relationship business.

Yet the only person he knew that was in a serious relationship was Athrun. And he really didn't want to bother him, after he was shot down by Kira and the Freedom, in yesterday's battle. So that pretty much left him to figure all of this out on his own.

"Damn it! A yellow flower that most would see as a weed?" He asked out loud, while he once more turned his attention back down at the crossword.

Yet even true it could not in anyway be denied, that the answer was pretty simple. There was just so many things going through his mind right now. That he didn't really think a whole lot about the response. He just sat there looking down stiffly at the question, for what seemed like hours.

It did however only take a few minutes before somebody else gave him the reply. "That's kinda easy, it's dandelion Nicol, it can't be anything else" a sweet low voice told him, which instantly made him look down at the only other person in the room. Where he saw that both of Luna's blue eyes where open, and that she was looking up at him.

"Lunamaria thank God you are awake, we where all so worried about you!" He told her in a loud tone, while carefully studying her face for any signs of discomfort or pain. Her expression however, didn't really tell him much about how she was feeling at the moment.

So after a few seconds he came to the decision, that it was most likely best, that he just asked her how she was feeling. Instead of wasting time trying to figure it out on his own.

Yet before he could even get his mouth half-way open. The tired girl asked him properly the last question, he had expected to hear just after she had woken up.

"So was I right Nicol? It was dandelion just as I said right?" She asked weakly, while slowly rubbing her cheek against the soft cushion she had been resting on since she had been brought there yesterday.

Blinking a couple of times at her words. Nicol slowly turned his gazes back down at the half finish crossword puzzle. And after counting the small fields for the letters he realized that she was right. So after using a brief moment to write that word where it belonged. He placed the crossword down on the floor, and once more turned his attention back towards her.

Yet one look at her face made it kinda obvious that she was still waiting for some answers to the whole dandelion thing, which was enough to make the green haired man sigh softly. He actually didn't really think that his crossword puzzle, was all that important at the moment.

But if it could make her happy that she had guess the right word. Then there wouldn't really be much harm in telling her the answer. "Yep you where right Lunamaria it was dandelion" he gently explained to her.

Hearing that Luna smile softly, while she tried to get a little more comfortable on the bed. And when she finally succeed in doing that. She once more started speaking in a low tone.

"That's awesome, by the way what happened to me Nicol? The last thing I remember from yesterday is all of those irritating Murasames coming towards us, and even that is a bit blurry, the only things I can recall is a few minor pieces of the battle" she said, while trying to figure out how exactly she had ended up in this totally beat up condition.

She just hoped that whatever injurious she had would not leave behind any scars. There might be some of the more lame male soldiers around who had the crazy idea that all women would fall head over heels for them, if they had one or two scars.

She however had never really found the thought of somebody getting injured all that attractive, and she could honestly say that she would never go out with a guy that was actually proud of his injurious.

And the idea that she could end up having just one single scar on her body. Was all that was needed to send a long cold shiver all the way down her spine, she would honestly preferred if her body could remained scar free.

There might be some women out there that found a man with a few scars here and there attractive. But it frankly didn't work the other way around. In her eyes a girl's skin had to remain smooth and sleek no matter the cost.

Yet while she was laying there worrying about that. Nicol's friendly voice interrupted her thoughts about the matter. "You took a pretty hard beating from a Murasame Luna. But as luck would have it, none of it's missiles hit your mobile suit directly. If that had happened there is a good chance, you would have been dead now" the man said. Not doing anything to hide how sad that thought made him.

Looking a bit at him, the red haired pilot could of course not help but notice the expression. And the thought that he had been so concerned about her, made her smile softly, while she slowly reached over and took a hold on his hand. Which she instantly gave a small reassuring squeeze, to show him that she was still there, and that he had nothing to worry about.

And once she got eye contact with him again. She continued on with their somewhat peaceful conversation.

"Guess that would explain why I'm feeling like total crap right now. But what about everybody else, are they ok?" She asked, with a slightly concerned gaze in both of her eyes.

Hearing her ask that. Nicol got a somewhat far look on his face, while using his free hand to scratch the back of his neck a few times. Not totally sure if it was wise to tell her, that there was a few crew members who had lost their lives under the Murasames assault on the ship.

And after thinking about it for a few seconds. He decided that it was most likely best not to say anything about that, until she was feeling a little better. Yet not wanting to arouse her suspicion about what had happened. He began talking to her in a calm voice.

"Well Rey, Athrun and Shinn are all ok. You where the only pilot who got injured. Unfortunately you can't really say the same about our mobile suits, the Impulse and my GOUF where the only machines that got out of that battle intact" he explained, while thinking about how badly damage, the ship's two red mobile suits gotten been in the last fight.

One single look at them made it pretty obvious for just about everybody. That they where almost impossible to repair. And to make matters even worth Rey's ZAKU was presently missing it's right arm, after his attempts to slow Kira down.

"I'm glad to hear that everybody is all right. But there is one thing that does confuse me. You said that the only mobile suits that are still function where the Impulse and your GOUF. But what happened to the Saviour? What kind of guy was good enough to take that machine out?" She asked, with a slightly curious look in both of her blue eyes.

Thinking briefly about her question. And how it had looked when Kira had destroyed the Saviour.

"It was taken out by the Freedom, quite brutally I might add. To tell you truth Luna, there was actually a small second or two, where I thought Kira was going to kill Athrun. It just looked so rough when he cut the Saviour apart" the green haired teen explained. Not even closed to realizing that the whole battle had been stage almost from the begin.

Somewhat taken back at hearing that the Freedom had made another appearance in one of their last battles. Lunamaria blinked a few times, as she wondered slightly why exactly that guy, and Archangel kept on doing that.

But in the end those thoughts made the headache she already had grew even larger. So she quickly shook those thoughts away. And once more turned her gaze up at her green haired friend, where she slowly asked him the next question on her mind.

"That guy in the Freedom what is he like Nicol? You know him don't you?" She asked softly, while seriously hoping that the headache she had now, wasn't something she had to live with, for the rest of her life.

Smiling slightly at her. Nicol rubbed his chin in a thoughtful manner. "Hmmmm well Kira is a pretty nice guy and a great pilot. Somebody I can honestly say I wouldn't have minded watching my back, when fighting the three stolen gundams or some of the other things, we have been facing. He's never been the kind of guy who likes to kill his opponents, something I actually respect him a great deal for" Nicol said.

Nodding a few times in understanding to that. Luna continued trying to satisfy her curiosity about the Freedom's pilot. "Do you miss fighting along side him?" The girl asked, easily able to tell that he was thinking hard about this Kira guy right now.

That was the sort of question that was a bit harder to find a response too.

"I would surely be lying, if I said that I was happy about having to fight an old friend. But Kira made his own decisions, and I made mine. I'm not regretting returning to Zaft or becoming a part of the Minerva's crew. I did get a whole new bunch of friends when I did that" he explained softly, briefly wondering if he had decide to remain back on earth two years ago, if he would have been a part of the Archangel's crew now.

But he only got a tiny moment to think about that. When Luna's tired voice interrupted his wandering thoughts.

"Well I for one Nicol can say that I'm glad that you are here. Together with Meyrin you are properly the most important person to me right now" she said. Just before she again gave his hand a small squeeze, which he immediately returned.

Truly happy at being told something like that. Nicol slowly reached down and brush away a few stands of hair, that was hanging down in front of her eyes.

"Thank you Luna it really means a lot to me hearing you say that. I feel the same way about you. And even true I can not deny, that I would like very much to keep on talking with you Lunamaria. I do think that it would be best if we stop for now and you go back to sleep. You really do look like you are having trouble keeping your eyes open" he gently told her.

While watching as she nodded a few times in agreement. Then drift of to sleep only a half minute later. "Sleep tight Luna" he mumbled. Then reached down and picked up his crossword puzzle, and once more started working on that.

000000

Meanwhile elsewhere on the ship.

Talia and Arthur was in her office, busy discoursing the condition of the Minerva and it's mobile suits. "Fortunately the engines didn't receive any kind of damage. But the hull is in pretty bad shape, and over half of our weapons is out of commission. It will take weeks to repair it all, especially if we have to stay hidden in this trench for long. It's not possible to get any of the necessary parts we need out here!" Arthur said not bothering to hide, that he was quite worried that somebody hostile might discover them.

Nodding slowly in understanding. Talia thought hard about what they should do now, they could turn around and head back the way the came or they could continue onward to their next destination.

Yet no matter what they decided to do. It could not be denied, that they would have to spend a whole lot of time in the next port they got to. If they somehow manage to get that far.

It didn't really take much of a genius to figure out. That it was highly unlikely that they would be able to survive another attack. In the totally beat up condition the ship was in now.

"What about our mobile suits Arthur? How are they doing?" The brown haired captain asked, sounding completely exhaust at the moment. It was pretty obvious that she hadn't been able to get much time to relax since yesterday, with everything that had needed her attention around the ship.

Feeling slightly sorry for her. Arthur turned his eyes down at the report he had brought with him in to the captain's office.

But quickly realizing that the information which she had just asked him about wasn't on this page he hurried flipped over to the next one, which he tried his best to read as swiftly as humanly possible.

He really didn't want to disturb the captain any longer then absolute necessary. He honestly thought, that she too deserved a little time of to get some shut eye.

And once he was done reading through the report, he again looked back at the captain. "Well according to Aves report it will take some kind of miracle to repair the Saviour and the Warrior, both of them where completely thrashed. And the Phantom took a pretty hard hit from the Freedom. So that one will much likely be out too, the next couple days, and that leaves us only with the Impulse and Nicol's GOUF!" He said.

Honestly a little pissed off at how much their fighting power had been reduced in the last battle, fortunately both the Earth Forces and Orb, had taken a lot of damage too. So if they really thought this through, they might be able to avoid another fight until they got new mobile suits, and the ship was fully combat ready again.

He frankly didn't want to think about how it would end, should they get in to another battle now.

Yet as he stood there trying so hard to figure out how high their survival odds was, should they encounter another Earth Forces fleet. It was only once he heard the captain let out a deep exhaust breath. That he finally got his mind back on reality and made him look back over at the woman.

Where he immediately noticed that she had a deep thoughtful look on her face. "If those two are our last line of defense. Then would you please tell them, Arthur to get plenty of rest. If we do run in to any other hostile forces, it would be bad if our only two pilots a ready to fall asleep standing up. And I especially means Shinn, he has been spending an awful lot of time with the Gaia pilot" Talia said. Not really happy with the idea, that the stubborn boy, was still harboring a crush on that girl.

Quickly realizing how much sense her words made. Arthur nodded a single time in understanding. "I'll make absolutely certain to tell both of them, once our meeting is over captain. I do believe Nicol, has been spending most of his time, down in Lunamaria's room, since yesterday!" The man said hastily, without stopping to breath once.

Smiling slightly at that. Talia found it really sweet that the green haired man was so concerned about the ship's only female pilot.

And she was happy to know that there had been somebody watching the girl this entire time. Even true it was one of those people, that should really be resting instead of staying awake the whole night. Yet she knew Nicol well enough to know, that as worried as he was about Luna, there was no way he would risk the lives of the rest of the crew, by forcing himself to stay awake for a long period of time.

Soon or later the boy was going to get some sleep, without being told to. Even if it meant, that he had to sleep in Lunamaria's room. So perhaps the best way to handle that situation, was simply to have somebody bring mattress down there. That way the green haired man could stay where he was, and keep watch over the Lunamaria.

Actually now that she was giving it a little thought. Talia found herself admitting, that Lunamaria and Nicol would make a very attractive couple. Not something she had the least bit against.

Unlike a relationship between Shinn and the Gaia pilot. She still thoroughly believe that a relationship like that was bound to be very dangerous for the boy. They really didn't know anything about that blond haired girl. So there was really no telling how unstable, she really was.

Unfortunately Shinn was way to stubborn to realize that. Which had been made even more clear, when Rey had been there to talk with her about the girl, not that they had actually come to some sort of agreement under that meeting. To be honest they had been quite far from it.

It wasn't like Talia had anything against that the people on her ship where in a relationship. Truth be told, she actually found it quite sweet, that something like that could be going o,n at time such as these.

And she would under normal circumstance have encouraged the whole thing. This however was far from normal. There was just no way the brown haired woman was able to fathom, how Shinn and that girl could even build a long last relationship with each other. And she kinda doubt, that there was anybody on the Minerva, that actually thought it was a good idea, that the two of them got together.

Yet that one time she had tried to tell him that. He had refused to listen to her, and had continued watching the comatose girl. Acting just like her words had meant next to nothing to him.

It didn't really matter who it was, if anybody had anything negative to say about the Gaia pilot he would simply ignore them completely. It was kinda like he had just decided to forget everything that girl had done, and behave like she was just a normal sweet girl, he had meet on shore leave. Not an enemy pilot, that had a ton of Zaft soldiers on her conscience.

And Talia was starting to doubt that she would ever be able to persuade the stubborn boy to stop sending so much time with that girl. It just didn't matter to him, how convincing and reasonable her words was. He just wouldn't stay away from that girl.

Yet while still deeply worried about how that whole affair would end. She slowly moved her eyes away from her desk and back up at Arthur. "I really appreciate your help Arthur, just don't be to hard on Nicol, I would like if there was somebody around to keep an eye on Lunamaria. I really don't think she should be alone at a time like this. And if you can avoid it, then don't start a big argument with Shinn. I don't really think any of us are in the mood to listen to that" she said.

Nodding slowly to the captain's words. Arthur got a somewhat determined expression on his face. "I understand captain, to tell you the truth I'm pretty worn out too. So I'll just make a quick visit to the sick bay and tell him to make sure to get a little sleep. After that I'll go talk with Nicol, I don't really expect him to start arguing back" he said, then hurried turned around and began making his way over to the door.

But before he could leave Talia call out after him again. "Once you are done with those minor tasks Arthur. Then please try and get a little sleep yourself. I really don't want the two of us to collapse from exhaustion the next time we are needed up on the bridge" she softly told him. Then smiled slightly once she saw him nod one last time.

After that he quickly disappeared out of the room. Leaving the exhaust woman by herself. And once the captain was absolutely sure, that he hadn't forgotten anything.

She slowly began unbuttoning her uniform while at the same time pulling out a nice red fluffy nightgown. Sincerely hoping that she could at least get a few hours of rest, before somebody would disturb her again.

And once she had the long nightgown on, it did not take many seconds before she was resting peacefully in her bed.

But even true she was slightly tempted to read a bit in the book laying beside her bed. She quickly decided against it, then tried to get a little more comfortable before she closed her eyes and slowly drifted off to sleep.

000000

At the same time up on the Minerva's deck.

Athrun was resting his arms on the railing, looking down at the calm blue water below the ship. While he could not deny, that he wasn't sad about the Saviour it was more the Takemikazuchi that was occupying his mind at the moment. It really had been terrible seeing the ship being destroyed like that, and he wondered just how many people had gone down with the enormous ship.

It wasn't like Shinn had been gentle when he had made his way through the ship's defense. It seemed impossible to figure out just how many Orb mobile suits, the boy had taken out yesterday.

Actually as far as he could tell, there was only one sure way of figure that out, and that was to ask Shinn about it. Which was most definitely not something he wanted to do.

The one time he had seen Shinn since yesterday, was early this morning, when he had gone down to the mess hall to get something to eat.

There he had found the dark haired teen bragging to Yolant and Vino about how he had destroyed the Takemikazuchi. And how utterly easy it had been, to take out so many of Orb's completely ridiculous mobile suits.

Athrun realized that if he where to go to him now, just to ask him that one question. Shinn would undoubtedly start boasting again about how cool a pilot he was, and that killing all of those Orb weaklings was no trouble at all. Which wasn't really something Athrun felt like listening to anytime soon. Especially since he actually felt like beating the crap out of the Impulse pilot, for sinking the enormous ship, and killing all of those people.

Just thinking about the image of the Takemikazuchi slowly disappearing down in to the ocean, was more then enough to make Athrun wonder how Cagalli was handling all of this.

She was properly even more depressed about the ship then he was. But at least she had Kira and Miriallia to help her through it. He on the other hand, had to get over his minor depression on his own. There wasn't anybody on the Minerva he could go talk with about what was troubling him, which again made the young man wonder if he had made the right decision about joining this ship.

He knew that if he had done things differently yesterday, he could have been back on board the very ship he considered as a second home. And back together with Cagalli once more.

But even true he could not deny, that he had missed her a lot ever since he had heard that she was pregnant with his child. The blue haired man wanted to make absolutely certain, that Zaft and the Chairman wasn't a threat to their unborn child.

No matter what gender it was going to be, it definitely deserved to grew up in a peaceful world. Even if it meant that he had to fight against the few friends, he had on board the Minerva.

He just wished he had some kind of clue about where to begin searching for information about the Chairman's true agenda. It wasn't like he actually had the option of sneaking in to Rey's room, and start hacking away at whatever computer was in there. If there was one thing which Athrun had never been all that good at. Then it was hacking.

It was just that kind of skill he had never bother taking the time to learn, which meant that now that he actually had a use for it. It annoyed him greatly that he had said no to those lessons back when going to the academy.

He just figure back then, that learning how to fire a gun accurately and piloting a mobile suit, was all the more important then hacking.

But unfortunately neither one of those skills, had much use when gathering together information. Unless of course he where to head straight to Rey's room point a gun at the blond man's head, and threaten him to tell everything that was going on.

Yet even if he did that. Athrun kinda doubt that Rey would actually tell him anything useful, that bastard seemed more loyal to the Chairman then anybody else on the Minerva. So Athrun figured that he would properly rather die, then give away their plans.

And that meant that idea was no good either. "I guess that I just have to find another way to get to the bottom of all of this!" He thought out loud. Not realizing that he wasn't alone up there any longer. And it was only once the person behind him started talking in a gentle tone, that he finally snapped back out of his thoughts about the Chairman and Zaft.

"What is it that you need to get to the bottom of Athrun? If you want me to maybe I can help you" Meyrin offered kindly. Making the blue haired man jump slightly, as he instantly turned around on one foot, where he almost seemed a bit like he was ready to put up a fight, if it was necessary.

And just the sight of him reacting in such a panicing manner, was more then enough to make the red haired girl, giggle slightly in amusement. He actually looked kinda cute when he was like this.

It wasn't all that frequently that Athrun would let his guard down enough, for anybody to actually give him a small scare like this. Now that she saw him behave all rattled up. The girl could not help but find him even cuter, then she already did.

But to her minor discontentment it did not take long before he returned to his usual serious mood. "It's not like I'm not glad to see you Meyrin. But to tell you the truth I actually thought that you would be trapped up on the bridge. Until the ship was ready to leave this place" Athrun explained to her. Then slowly turned his gazes away from her and back down at the ocean.

Seeing him do that, the young red haired woman, took a few steps closer to him.

"Well it has been quite a busy day Athrun. We did after all receive quite a beating from all of those Orb Murasames. I can't even count how many things that needs to be repaired, after yesterday's battle" she said.

Then use a few brief seconds, to think about how close that one Murasame had came to destroy the Minerva's bridge.

And even true she had made extra sure not to mention it to anybody. There was actually a small part of her, that was feeling somewhat grateful, that the Freedom had shown up when it did. If it hadn't been for that machine, they would most likely all have been dead now.

She did however not think about those creepy things for long, before she hurried shook them away. Then moved the rest of the way over beside Athrun.

"But what about you, how are you feeling? You do seem quite depressed right now. I'm really sorry about what happened to the Saviour. I was kinda worried about you when the Freedom tore it apart" the pigtailed girl said. Before leaning a bit forward to try and determined, what kind of expression he had on his face, at this exact moment.

Yet the only thing she was able to figure out by doing that, was that he presently had a lot on his mind right now. Unfortunately there was just no way for her to know for certain, if the things she had just said, was included in it.

He didn't really pay all that much attention to her, which honestly did disappoint her a bit. If there was anything at all bothering him, the redhead would very much like to be the one to help him get through it. Yet if he refused to tell her anything, there wasn't really all that much she could do. It wasn't like, she could actually force him to tell her, what was going on.

And even true it was done somewhat unwillingly. She started considering if it wasn't best that she just left him alone. So he could handle these things on his own, he honestly did seemed completely insulated, from the outside world right now.

So after looking at him a bit longer. She slowly turned around, and was just about to leave, when his voice called out to her. "I'll be just fine Meyrin. It's not like losing the Saviour is the end of the world. At least I got out of the whole thing without getting even one scratch. Guess that I'm pretty lucky, that Kira is so well trained in disabling mobile suits!" He said

Deciding against telling the youngish Hawke sister, that it wasn't really the lost of the gundam that was bothering him. But the destruction of the Takemikazuchi, and all of those people, that had lost their lives in the process.

Truly delighted to know that his mood wasn't so bad, that he refused to talk with her. Meyrin once again got back over beside him.

"I'm just relieved that you weren't hurt, the Saviour was after all just a machine. And I'm pretty certain that once the Chairman hears what happened to it. He will give you a new one. Perhaps he will even hand you are more powerful mobile suit, then the Saviour!" She said in a cheerful tone, which she honestly hoped, would rub of on him a bit.

Hearing those words, Athrun took a glance away from the ocean and over at the girl. Where he gave her a small grateful smile, it really was nice to have somebody to talk with right now.

Even true it was impossible for him, to tell her anything about the actual source of his minor depression.

It was just that ever since his chat with Kira back at the space port. He kinda felt like he was all on his own on this ship. Like nobody there wanted to have anything to do with him.

So it was kinda nice, that there was somebody around. That was willing to listen to what he had to say, when he was feeling down in the dumps.

And even true he did have his doubts, about him getting a new mobile suit. He still thought that it was really kind of her to say something like that, to try and cheer him up.

"I guess that we just have to wait and see Meyrin. But I do think that it will take quite a while, before I'll get a new mobile suit" he said, while wondering just how long they would have to be stuck out there. Before it was somewhat safe for them to continue onward towards their next destination. Unfortunately that was kinda hard to figure out with all the damage on the ship.

Looking a bit at him. Meyrin thought hard about everything he had just said to her, which made her realized that he was properly right.

It would properly take quite a while, before they would arrive at a place where it was possible for them to get two or three new mobile suits as replacement for those they lost yesterday. Especially if one of those machines had to be a gundam.

Yet as she stood there thinking about that. Another question which she had been wanting to ask Athrun for a while now enter her mind.

"By the way Athrun, now that we are talking about mobile suits. How can it be that all of you machines are coloured red? When you first got here, I took a small look at both the Aegis and the Justice. And those two had almost the exact same red colour, as the Saviour" the red haired woman said, with a curious look in both of her blue eyes.

Thinking briefly about what she had just said. Athrun once more turned his gaze away from the ocean and back over at the girl.

"I guess that I'm just fortune getting gundams program with that colour. Beside if I suddenly where to start piloting a blue or green mobile suit, the whole red knight nickname would most likely be ruined!" He explained, there wasn't really that many people around that knew he had that nickname. But there was a part of the young man, that kinda liked it. So there was definitely no reason to mess around with that.

Blinking a couple of times at the explanation, Meyrin slowly reached up and scratched her long red hair a bit.

"Hmm I didn't know that you had a nickname like that Athrun. But I most admit it does somehow suit you" she said.

Then tried to image how he would look dressed in a red coloured armour, and riding along on a beautiful black stallion, with a big sword at his side ready to fight just about anybody. That would try and prevent him from saving his lovely princess.

She being the princess of course.

Yet as she stood there fantasizing about that. Her common sense remind her, that something like that was properly never going to happen. He was after all very much in-love with Cagalli. So there was just no room in his heart for her to be his princess.

And that bitter realization was all that was needed to make a big displeased vein appear on her forehead.

Noticing just how far away she was in her own thoughts. Athrun waited a patiently for her to return back to reality.

And once he saw the girl lean her head a bit to the side. It looked to him like she was just about done with her daydreaming, not that there was anyway for him to be absolutely sure about that. But that did not stop him from opening his mouth, to give the red haired girl a response, to the compliment she had given him about his not so common nickname.

"Thank you Meyrin, that's kind of you to say" he softly told the grey space ship's CIC, not realizing that she was only listening to him with a half ear.

The pigtailed teenage was simply far to caught up in her romantic fantasy right now, to pay all that much attention to him. Even true, he did play a very important role in the many scenes, that was happening in her mind at the moment.

Yet once Athrun came to the realization that she was still not listening to him. He once more turned his attention back towards the sea. Deciding to take a small pause in their conversation, until Meyrin was ready to continue.

000000

Meanwhile somewhere else on the ship.

Shinn was leaving the mess hall carrying a can of soda in his left hand.

There weren't really that many people around out there at the moment. Something that he could honestly say, he was quite pleased with.

If there was one thing he wasn't in the mood for right now, then it was having a long conversation with any of the other crew members. He simply wanted to get down to the sick bay as quickly as possible, to spend a few hours watching over Stella.

Fortunately the few people he passed on his way down there, didn't really pay all that much attention to him. They where all far too busy with their own work to begin a long conversation.

Which of course meant that it did not take long for him to reach his destination, where he instantly made his way over to the beautiful blond girl. "Hey there Stella, I'm sorry that I haven't been by today. But after everything that happened yesterday, there was a few things I had to help out with" he calmly told her. Then was just about to sit down, when he suddenly realized that something had been different about her face.

But even knowing that, it took the teen almost an entire minute to figure out what exactly the change had been, unlike the many other times, when he had been visiting her. This time around both of her eyes had been halfway open, when he had started talking to her.

And the realization that his crush might be awake, was more then enough to make him drop the can of soda and jump back up on his feet, where he immediately began watching her face, for any signs that could tell him, if she was awake or not.

"Stella can you hear me?" He softly asked her. Then saw something that made a huge happy smile appear on his face. Once he saw her beautiful blue eyes slowly open and look up at him.

But just as he was about to say something cheerful about her finally waking up. The boy could of course not help, but notice the utterly panicking and scared expression that instantly appeared on her otherwise lovely face. Once she laid eyes on him.

It almost seemed like she thought he was a ghost of some kind, which had no other reason to be there, other then to hurt her. And before he could do even one thing to try and help her out, she open her mouth and let out an enormous scream, that could properly be heard halfway through the ship.

"NEO WHERE ARE YOU?! PLEASE HELP ME NEO!" The frightened girl cried out loudly, while a large amount of tears left her eyes and flew down her face, as she fought hard to get out of the bed, and away from the creepy looking person standing above her.

Unfortunately while desperately trying to get away from there. Her right leg just happened to get entangle in the sheets. Which meant, that it was impossible for the terrified girl to get away from there.

And once she finally realized that. The more violent part of her personality took over, which apparently quickly came to the conclusion. That there was only one way for her to handle this situation.

Which was to defend herself, and make certain that this strange person, could not do anything painful to her. So without any hesitation her hand flew forward, heading straight towards the red eyed teenager's face.

Seeing that Shinn instantly reacted and caught her fist before it could hit it's intended target. "Stella please calm down! Everything is going to be all right Stella! There is nobody here, that are going to hurt you!" Shinn yelled loudly, hoping to calm the girl down. This panick attack she had now, was even worth then that time, where she had fallen in to the sea, and he had been forced to jump in after her.

Yet no matter what he said and did. The scared girl kept on struggling against him, and it was only by share luck that he somehow manage to intercept the next attack heading for him.

"Stella you are not in any kind of danger here, I'll protect you, I promise YOU!" He shouted loudly, while tightly holding on to both of the girl's hands. Making sure that she would not get the opportunity to try and punch him again, or use her finger nails as weapons. The dark haired boy knew from past experience that those things where pretty sharp. So if it was possible, he would very much like to avoid having his skin shredded up by them again.

But no matter how many calming words he yelled out to the girl.

She continued on with her ferocious struggle to get away from him. And when he at a brief moment actually manage to get eye contact with her. He came to the deeply bitter realization, that she did not remember him at all.

"STELLA JUST WHAT THE HELL, DID THOSE EARTH FORCES BASTARDS, DO TO YOU!?" He loudly asked her.

But even true his angry voice could be heard far and wide. It had least then no effect on the hysterical girl, she kept on fighting against him. And acted very much like she was ready, to scratch both of his eyes out.

It was almost like she thought that now that she was finally awake, the entire crew was slowly going to torture her, one by one.

But as much as Shinn wanted to embrace the girl and reassure her, that something like that was never going to happen, as long as he was around. He simply could not loosen his grip on her.

If he where to do that. It was pretty obvious that he could end up with more then a few scratches and injuries.

"Stella please stop this, I'm not going to hurt you" he tried telling her. But the only kind of response he got from her, once those words had left his mouth. Was an even larger scream, as she quickly moved forward towards him, obviously hoping to bite him now that her hands where trapped by her opponent.

But just as the blond woman was about to bore her teethe in to his left shoulder, she suddenly stopped and fell forward in to Shinn's arms, where the dark haired boy blinked a few times as he looked down at her. Completely and utterly confused about what had just happened to her.

Yet when he took a closer look at her, he noticed the nasty looking syringe that was embed in her left arm.

"What the heck...who the hell did that to her?" He asked concerned.

Then slowly moved his red eyes from her and over to the person standing behind them. He had been so caught up in trying to calm her down, that he hadn't notice the ship's doctor had entered the room.

But one single look at the expression the man had on his face, made it pretty clear that he was in a foul mood at the moment. "I guess that we where kinda lucky, that I had prepared for this!" He said angrily, while gently removing the syringe from her arm.

Seeing him do that. Shinn narrowed both of his eyes, as he seriously considered removing that stupid look from the man's face.

"What exactly did you do to her? Haven't she been drugged enough already?" He asked the man in a low voice, which made it completely clear that it would be very wise of the doctor, to give him some kind of response.

Not really caring about the hateful glare the boy was sending him. The doctor turned around and placed the syringe on a nearby table.

"Please don't misunderstand Shinn. It's not like I'm happy about injecting this stuff in to her. But seeing as we had no idea about, how she was going to react, once she woke up. I believed that it was best to have something ready that could put her back to sleep. If she had escaped from here, there is a possibility that one of the other crew members, would have to shoot her in self-defense" the doctor calmly explained, while picking up his stethoscope.

So while watching the man place the device against the upper part of Stella's chest.

Shinn went through everything the doctor had just said. And as much as he hate to admit it. He had no trouble understanding the logic in the explanation.

He really didn't want her to get kill, after everything she had been through. There was simply no way this innocent beautiful girl deserve that. If it hadn't been for those damn Earth Forces bastards. she would properly be living peacefully, somewhere far away from the battlefield.

And while yet again swearing to make them pay the next time he came across them. He watched as the man slowly removed the stethoscope and place it back where he had found it.

"So doc, will she be all right?" He asked. Then slowly reached down and gently brushed back a few strands of her nice blond hair, while watching her lovely face.

If anybody asked him. There was no way he could deny, that he wasn't somewhat disappointed about the hysterical way, she had reacted, when she had first regained consciousness. And even more so, when he had discovered that she couldn't remember him.

And just the idea that there was somebody out there willing to mess around with another person's memories, was more then enough to make the short tempered teen's blood boil. Whoever it was, that had done this to her, was definitely in for a world of pain, once he was able to figure out his identity. Perhaps it was that Neo bastard she had been screaming about, that was to blame for this.

One thing was definitely sure. That guy was already standing with both of his feet, halfway in the grave.

The pissed off gundam pilot might not be absolutely sure about this. But he was more then willing to bet an entire year's of salary on. That this Neo fellow was the one piloting that highly annoying purple Windam, that had been backing up the three stolen gundams when the Nyiragongo had been destroyed. One thing was certain, that guy was definitely a very dangerous pilot.

But Shinn was completely determined to take the bastard out, if he ever got the chance. He did however only get a few brief moments, to dream about what it would be like to completely disassemble that damn purple machine, when the doctor's voice interrupted his thoughts.

"She is going to be just find Shinn. But I do think that it would be best that you left her alone for a bit. So why don't you go get some fresh air. You look like you could really use it" he told the boy.

Sincerely hoping that he would follow his advise without any kind of complaining. He really wanted to take a closer look, at the bizarre enemy pilot.

When he had been listening to her heart, he had immediately noticed, that it was beating in a very rapid pattern. Like it was actually have a difficult time keeping on going. And that honestly worried him quite a bit. He might not like this girl very much.

But as long as she was in there. He had a responsibility to make sure that she was all right and breathing. And there just no way in hell, he was going to look the other way, when he could do something to help her out.

Yet if it was necessary to run a complete check-up on the blond girl. He wanted Shinn out of there first. The boy did after all have the tendency to think, that everybody else on board this ship, was out to hurt the pure girl.

And he couldn't really concentrate properly on what he needed to do. If the Impulse pilot, was standing only a few feet away from him. Keeping a close eye on every single thing he did. That could honestly get frustrating very fast, especially since the boy would most likely be ready to start a fight, if he gave him any kind of bad news about the girl.

So while the doctor was expecting that he had to get in to a longer argument with Shinn about this. The kid actually manage to surprise him, by turning around and leaving the room, without saying even one word of protest.

"Ok that was unexpected, I really thought that he was going to insist on staying in here. Guess it was a bit of a shock for him, that the girl would actually attack him" he said. Just as he went over to the medical closet to get the equipment he needed to take a blood sample from the sleeping woman. He was going to need that to determined what exactly was wrong with her.

But as he was cut up doing that, he did not notice the pair of angry looking red eyes, watching his every move.

And it was only when Shinn saw, the doctor reached over and carefully pierce the skin on the girl's left arm with the hypodermic needle. That he slowly turned around and left, not wanting to see anymore. He could quite easily guess, that the doc had been lying to him about Stella being ok.

And even true every fiber of his being, was screaming for him to help her out.

He realized that there was nothing he could do. Before the doctor was finish running all of those damn test on her.

But if it turned out that there was something really serious wrong with her. Then he would just have to come up with away to make certain, that she was safe. Even it it meant, that he had to steal the doc's medical report on her.

If his crush was in any kind of danger. He wanted to know about it no matter what it took.

To be continued.


	44. Chapter 44

Chapter 44

To say that things where busy on the Archangel was quite an understatement.

Murdoch and the rest of the mechanics was busy running check-ups on all of the Murasames they had gotten on board yesterday.

Fortunately most of them where in good condition. And the few minor errors they had found on two of them, wouldn't really take a whole lot of time to repair. If they push them self they could properly be done with it, in just about a half hour.

Yet for now they where just concentrating on finding the mistakes, once that was over and done with, they could always start on with whatever repairs, the white and red mobile suits needed. But even true they all knew, that it wasn't the most difficult task, that was waiting ahead for them, there wasn't even one of the mechanics who could say that he wasn't looking forward to this.

After being stuck down at the bottom of the ocean, for such a long time. It was kinda nice to have something else to do other then sit on their butts, watching whatever boring junk they could find on the television, or playing poker. Most of them where especially eager to start working on the one Murasame, that was missing it's right arm.

"Ok ladies just two more to go, then we can start the real fun and games!" Murdoch said while taking a small glance in the direction of the only visible damage mobile suit down there, he too was really looking forward to start messing around with that machine.

It was always a bit of a challenge putting a new component on a mobile suit, especially because they would first have to remove the rest of the old arm and that could take some time.

Not that he was going to complain about that. It really was nice to have something to do, after sitting around being lazy for such a long time, which was not something the chief engineer liked very much, he honestly preferred it when the hangar was full of actives and smelling strongly of oil.

Some people might really dislike that stench, but he kinda liked it, especially since it was a clear sign, that he and all of the other mechanics, had been hard at work on something.

And what kind of weird ass mechanic, did not like getting his hands covered up in oil.

If there actually was somebody who didn't like it between them, there was just no way that guy would get out of washing the floors down here, for a very long time.

Truth be told there was only one mechanic on the entire vessel, that the engineer would allow to be a little lazy today. And that was Dearka, simply because he was a pilot too, and would need some time to rest up, until the next battle would occur.

Yet while he was thinking about what kind of mess they would get in to next. There was suddenly a voice that call out to him. "Hey boss! The rifle on this baby is a bit unstable, from the looks of things I would say it got overheated doing the last battle. I'm not totally certain if it can be fixed, so we might have to give this one a whole new rifle!" The young brown haired man sitting inside the Murasame yelled.

Hearing that Murdoch instantly got back to reality. "I'll be right there, we frankly don't have so many beam rifles, that we can afford to just throw them away like they where nothing more then cheap toys!" He said in a loud tone, while hastily making his way over to the Murasame.

Completely and utterly determined to at least try to get the weapon to function, as it was suppose to.

000000

At the same time else where on the ship.

Kira was standing up on the bridge, watching and listening to the conversation, which was going on between his sister, and the Orb soldiers that had gotten on board the ship yesterday.

They might all say that they where here to help out, but he wasn't entirely certain that he truste all of them yet. There could very easily be somebody among them, that was only here to spy on them.

And he really didn't like the idea of the Seiran family, knowing every single thing they did. And one glance over at Dearka that was standing beside to him was enough for him to tell, that he was thinking almost the exact samething.

It was kinda difficult to just start trusting these people, at least not until they had heard their reasons for being here. So as Birdy slowly jumped from his right shoulder and to the left.

The Freedom pilot once more turn his attention back towards the obvious leader of the many Orb soldiers, extremely interested in hearing what exactly he was going to tell Cagalli.

Fortunately he only had to wait a few moments until the bowing man stood up straight again and looked over at Cagalli.

Yet when he did that, the young Yamato could not help but notice, that it seemed quite bit like he was carrying the weight of the whole world on his shoulders. It was pretty obvious that the lieutenant was deeply sadden about something right now.

That however did not prevent the man from speaking his mind to Cagalli, he actually sounded very sincere about the whole matter.

"I'm really sorry about everything lady Cagalli, for both losting so many of our brave soldiers and the Takemikazuchi" the lieutenant said, clearly having a very difficult time, keeping his tears at bay.

Amagi was still having trouble believing, that his long time best friend was dead. And he knew that it would take quite a long time before he would be able to get over that.

But now was not the right time for him to be mourning, he could always do that when he had a some time for himself. Yet as of right now he needed to work on for filling his friend's last request.

Which where to help out lady Cagalli and the crew on the Archangel, and he was absolutely determined to do that no matter what it took.

And with that in mind, he once more began talking to the blond woman in a deep serious tone. "It's just that no matter how hard we tried, we just couldn't stop Yuna from doing some of the things he did, like ordering us to try and shoot you down my lady and telling our people that you where nothing more then an impostor, to get our soldiers to continue the battle!" He said, while thinking back to some of the things the purple haired imbecile had said.

"I can't even recall how many times I was tempt to throw that damn Seiran over the side of the Takemikazuchi. He didn't even realize that it was actually his fault that we lost so much by joining the Earth Forces, I still can't believe that we voluntarily followed his orders..."

That was about all the depressed lieutenant was able to get out, before Cagalli cut him off.

"Please stop with the excuses Amagi, I don't blame you or Todaka for what happened in those battle. It was just as much my fault for not being able to convince the other politicians about how big a mistake it was, for us to join up with the Earth Forces. Maybe if I had stayed back in Orb, instead running off like I did. I could have stop some of these things from happening. You should all be blaming me for not being strong enough!" The girl said.

Just as a deep sob ran through her entire body, but even with the many tears running down her face, she slowly reached over and took a hold on the lieutenant's right hand.

She could easily tell, that this was just as agonizing for the man as it was for her.

Particularly all of the soldiers standing that was standing gather, not far behind the lieutenant. Seemed quite a bit like they where all just about ready to break down in tears, at any moment now.

Hearing how much their young rightful leader was blaming herself for everything that had happened. Amagi could not hold his tears back anylonger, which meant that they where soon running freely down his face.

"But...but Lady Cagalli we all knew that you did everything you could to talk some sense in to the other politicians. And I'm pretty certain that you could have done that, if it had not been for the Seirans. It definitely can't be denied that you are a pretty strong and wise leader my lady, and if you had not been the voice of reason in all of this, we would properly all still be following Yuna's and Unato's orders, no matter how wrong they where!" He said.

Deeply pissed off at how much the Seiran family, had cost their proud nation.

And what really made a few hairs stand on edge, was the whole thing, about not thinking they had done anything wrong.

If he had been in their shoes, he honestly didn't know, how in the world he would be able to live with himself. He just wasn't sure how that he would be able to go on with normal everyday life, with so many people on his conscience.

Yet as he stood there, wondering about the Seirans lack of conscience, it was another sob from the blond teen that snapped him back out of his thoughts about Orb's most despicable family.

"I just...I just wish that I could have done more to help out, if I hadn't been such a naive fool, perhaps I could have found away to stop the Seirans from getting Orb involved in this dumb war!" She sobbed loudly, while she continued telling all of them that it was her fault that Orb had suffered as much as it had since the war broke out so many months ago.

Seeing her crying face, Amagi felt a new bunch of tears leave his eyes. "Please don't say that my lady, you did enough! You have done so incredible much for us, you left Orb behind, to travel all the way out here, to try and stop all of this pointless fighting and prevent us from making a big mistake" the man said, also sobbing quite a bit about the whole thing.

As he tightly grasped the girl's shoulders, in an attempt to try and cheer her up.

He honestly didn't think the young woman was to blame for any of this. But as he tried his very best to come up with something else to say to the girl, somebody else cut in to the conversation.

"Please don't cry Cagalli, it's not the right time for that. Each of us here has to remain strong for the sake of the world. We all know that fighting with Zaft wouldn't do us any good, and going up against Earth Forces wouldn't resolve anything either. So I believe that we all have to think long and hard about what we should be fighting in this war!" Kira said, before he softly embraced his sister.

Looking a few seconds at the young man. Amagi might have heard a great deal about the Freedom gundam's pilot, but this was actually the first time he had ever meet him in person.

But when he thought back to the few video footages, he had seen of the Freedom's battle against the three Earth Forces gundams.

Forbidden, Calamity and Raider it was more then enough for him to know, that this young man deserved a great deal of his respect. And that it was a real honour for him, to be fighting along side the brown haired teen.

So while watching the boy comfort his sister, a small smile slowly appeared on his lips. "I totally agree with you Kira Yamato, but it is hard to figure out, who our real enemies are in all of this. I do however think that there is more then enough people, that has lost their lives already. And I don't think it would be wise of us to throw even more fuel on the fire" the lieutenant said in a deep thoughtful tone.

That was when Dearka decided to share his opinion about the matter.

"Well at least now that the rest of the Orb forces have retreated back home, we don't have to look after the Minerva any longer, I was seriously starting to get annoy by that, mostly because I hate that ship with a passion!" The blond man said, while thinking about how bothersome he found the grey Zaft ship.

Hearing that Cagalli slowly pulled away from her brother's embrace, and looked back at the former Buster pilot. "Well just as long as Orb doesn't try and attack that ship again Dearka, I don't think it will be necessary for us to interfere in any more of her battles" the blond woman said, feeling slightly concerned about her fiancé, he was after all still a part of that ship's crew, even after what Kira had done to the Saviour.

She still had no idea that Athrun, had actually let her brother destroy the Saviour on purpose, she hadn't really been having a whole lot of time to talk with Kira, since he got back to the ship yesterday.

Yet as she was thinking about that, Dearka apparently decided that there was a few more things he wanted to say.

"That's good news Cagalli, I'm not totally keen on the idea of helping a bunch of people, that I honestly don't like" he said, while slowly stretching both of his arms up over his head, and forcing back a small yawn.

He didn't know why but for some reason, he had been sleeping badly last night, so he frankly wouldn't mind going back to his and Miriallia's room and get a good long nap.

Unfortunately his last comment about not liking the Minerva's crew, wasn't really something Cagalli appreciated very much. Which she show openly by glaring angrily at him, not that he notice that. He was far more busy wondering, when exactly he would be able to get out of there. And it was only once Kira gave him a light tap with his elbow, that he snapped back out of his thoughts and looked back over at the displeased blond woman.

Where he immediately realized that she was once more pissed off about something. And just seeing that angry glare that she was sending him, was more then enough to make him take a large step backwards.

"Just so we are clear Dearka, my fiancé and the father of my child is a part of that vessel's crew, you two are suppose to be friends, so please don't go around saying that you don't like the people on the Minerva!" She said displeased.

Not hearing any of the loud shocked grasp every single one of the Orb soldier, once they heard she was pregnant, she was simply way to occupied with making sure that Dearka knew, that she was angry at him again.

But even true everybody else took notice of the shocked looks all of the soldiers was giving Cagalli. The former pilot of the Buster gundam, knew that he was still in a great deal of trouble.

"I didn't really mean it like that Cagalli. Believe me I would have been happy, if Athrun had return back here yesterday. I'm not overly excited about having to beat up my friends!" He explained, while slowly scratching the hair at the back of his neck in a thoughtful manner.

Glaring at him a bit longer, it didn't take many seconds before a wicked grin slowly appeared on Cagalli's lips. "Hmmm I do seem to recall Dearka, that it was you that was having trouble, when you fought against Athrun yesterday. From what I could tell, he was the one to do most of the beating up" she said, not doing very much to hide, that she was feeling pretty smug right now.

Looking deeply hurt by that, the blond man slowly reached up and removed a pretend tear from his cheek. "OW! You do know that really hurt!" He said sound very much, like he was ready to start crying at any moment now.

And before Cagalli could say anything else 'mean' to him, he hurried moved over beside his girlfriend, where he instantly start complaining about Cagalli being mean to him. That however only served to make both girls, and a few others roll their eyes at his childish behaviour.

So after glaring at him a bit longer. Cagalli once more turned her attention back towards Amagi and the rest of the soldiers. Yet before even a single word could leave her mouth, the lieutenant reached down and grasp on to her right hand.

"That's really wonderful news lady Cagalli, I would very much like to congratulate you my lady! Hearing something so nice at these depressing times, is marvellous indeed!" Amagi said in a loud tone, and with an enormous smile on his face.

Completely taken back by those words, the young woman blinked a few times in confusion, as she took a small step away from him, and when she had gotten a little distances from the man.

She could of course not help but notice. The many happy and smiling looks the soldiers was sending her.

"Wh...what exactly are you talking about Amagi?!" The girl asked, the teenager had yet to realize that only a few moments ago, she had told everybody present up there that she was pregnant.

Smiling gently at her, the lieutenant let out a light chuckle. "When you where scolding Elsman over there, you happened to let out that the former Justice pilot, was the father of your child. So unless you where just kidding around. I would say, that you are pregnant my lady" Amagi said, obviously very happy on the young woman's behalf, he might never show it much, but he had always liked kids.

And whenever he gave it some thought, he could honestly say, that he was a slightly disppointed, that he and his ex-wife had never gotten a child, in the short time they had been married.

But back then he had just been so fixated with his military career, that starting a family had been the last thing on his mind. Which was actually the reason why she had decided to leave him in the first place. Something which to this day, still hurt quite a bit.

He did however not get long to think about his past mistakes, when he heard the blond teen mutter out a few minor courses under her breath. And once he turned his attention back towards her, the lieutenant could easily tell that she was feeling a little embarrassed right now.

"Well...I...I...I wasn't really planing on telling you guys about that yet, I had hoped to wait until you where all settled in over here" she said in a small tone, as she looked down at the floor, with a small red glow on both of her cheeks.

That was when another of the soldiers took a big step forward. "I for one think that it's great to know, that there can be brought new life in to this world. After all the death and destruction we all witnessed yesterday" the red haired man said.

While at the same time briefly wondering how his family and girlfriend was doing back home in Orb.

After being away from them, for such a long time, he was honestly starting to miss them all quite a bit.

But he firmly believed that helping out lady Cagalli and the Archangel, was the best way to make certain. That each of them, remained perfectly safe, until this damn war was over and done with.

Looking a bit at the red haired soldier, Cagalli gave him a grateful smile. "Thank you very much for saying that. I really appreciate you guys support, it means a lot for me to know that, all of you guys wants to help me bring Orb back to how it used to be" Cagalli said. Before giving all of the soldiers a deep thankful bow, which made all of them salute her.

Each of them completely determined to help out Orb's rightful leader as much as possible, but before Amagi or any of the other soldiers could say anything about just how deeply honoured. They where to assist the girl in bring Orb back to it's right path.

The door to the bridge flew open, and in stepped a certain eleven-year-old girl that instantly started talking in an extremely loud tone.

"Hey mom! When are you done velcoming our new crew members? You did promise to play a few games with me, it really is starting to get boring sitting down in my room all alone!" She said, not really paying any attention to the newcomers. That was all watching her with a somewhat surprised expression on their faces. Neither one of them had really expected somebody so young to be on board the Archangel.

It was pretty rare for any of them to see a kid her age being on board a warship, that could enter battle at any given moments. And it took a few of very long seconds for Amagi to get over the minor shock the child had just given him.

"So who is this young lady?" He kindly asked, even true he already had a bit of an idea about what the reply was going to be. There wasn't really that many people up there, that actually fit the title mom.

And he wasn't really overly surprised when the captain reached over and gently rubbed her hair. "This is my daughter Mayu Ramius. I really do hope, that you can all get along with her, she is a very important part of the crew" Murrue explained, feeling more than a bit ashame, that she hadn't been able to spend anytime with the girl the last two days.

Which was something she was planing on correcting once this meeting was over. It wasn't really hard to figure out that with all of them, so occupied with trying to stop all of the fighting. There really had been nothing else for her to do, other then sit around in her room reading books or playing with her toys.

But doing that for two days straight, would properly bore most people out of their minds. It actually did amazed Murrue quite a bit, that her daughter hadn't shown up there much early, to search for her.

So once they where done in there. The woman was planing on spending the rest of the day together with the girl, doing whatever she wished to do. She just hoped that it wasn't something like going down to the hangar to play planks and make trouble for Murdoch, as far as she knew the chief engineer was quite busy looking over all of the Murasames, they had gotten on board yesterday.

She did however only get a few moments, to think about that. Before somebody else cut in to the conversation.

"Yeah, Mayu here is the ship's personal prankster, we would not be able to keep on going, if we didn't have one of them on board" Cagalli said, while giving the girl a big teasing smile.

Hearing that Mayu instantly turned and glared over at her big sister figure.

"Hey that's uncalled for big sis! I'm not a prankster, I just like bothering people a lot!" She said in a tone, which made it pretty obvious for all of them. That she was actually a bit proud, of her abilities to annoy and get on other people's nerves.

It was about that time Dearka, decided to started talking again.

"Yeah, and you do that so well Mayu, it's always fun seeing you piss off Murdoch" the blond haired mobile suit pilot told her, while thinking about some of the better pranks the girl had pull down in the hangar.

Looking a bit at him, it took least then a second for the girl to get an enormous smile on her face. Like most other kids she liked, being praised, for something she was good at. Yet her mother's next words did put a small damper on her spiteful attitude.

"Well I for one kinda wish that she would find another hobby then playing pranks on the crew, perhaps you could start assembling jigsaw puzzles Mayu or something else, that will not result in you giving Murdoch a stroke or two" Murrue said. Even true she realized that there was just no way her daughter, would ever take up such a nice peaceful hobby.

Getting a minor thoughtful look on her face, the brown haired girl actually did seem like she was considering her mother's words. But finally after a few long moments, she swiftly shook her head.

"Nah! That sounds even more tiresome, then being cooped up in my room doing nothing. And look at it this way mom, I am getting quite good at sneaking around all over the Archangel. Which means that once I grow up, I can become a spy or something like that!" She said in a loud excited tone, while taking a quick glance around herself, to make certain that there wasn't any suspicious looking people around.

Seeing her do that Murrue roll her eyes a single time, before she began telling the girl what her opinion on her future career choice. "I would actually very much prefer that you found a least dangerous job Mayu, but if that's what you want to do then I support you" the captain said. Quite frankly doubting that Mayu actually wanted that job when the time came.

The last time she had talked about what she wanted to be when she grew up, she had very firmly insist on that she wanted to become a foto model, once she was old enough.

And the time before that she had said something about being a veterinarian, seeing as she liked animals a lot. There was simply no way to tell, when the brown haired girl, would come up with her next career choice, and how utterly crazy it was going to be.

"Wow thanks mom, but it's not like I can get a proper training to that here, so do you want to go play a few games with me? I already got the first one ready down in the mess hall!" The eleven-year-old said in a loud eager voice.

Smiling a bit at her, Murrue slowly turned her attention away from her and over at Cagalli. "Do we have anything else we need to discourse right now. I do kinda feel like I have been neglecting my daughter the last two days" Murrue said, then got up from her seat, honestly hoping that there wasn't anything else, they needed to talk about at the moment.

And much to her relief. Cagalli scratch her hair a bit in a thoughtful manner. "I don't have much else to say, but if it's alright with you, I would like to join the two of you in whatever game you are going to play" the blond woman said. She might not show it much, but she really wouldn't mind a little down time to just sit around and relax for a few hours, and what better way to do that, then spending it together with the once she cared about.

Hearing that Mayu instantly got an even more anxious and excited expression on her small face. "Of course you can join us big sis, the more the merry!" She shouted loudly, obviously ready to rush full speed, out of the room at any minute now.

Yet before the meeting could end completely, somebody that had been pretty quiet the last few minutes started speaking. "I do have one more thing, that I would like to talk with Dearka and Amagi about, if that's alright with you?" Kira said.

Then looked over at his fellow mobile suit pilot and the lieutenant, who each looked a tiny bit confused about the request.

But one look at Kira's face, was more then enough to tell them that this was quite important. "Just as long as it don't take too long, I am quite exhausted right now, and I could really use a few hours of shut eye" Dearka explained, just as he stretch both arms up over his head, trying his best to keep back the yawn, that was threating to leave his mouth.

Amagi on the other hand, didn't have anything against talking with Kira, about whatever the young man had on his mind.

"I'm not sure what it is you want to talk about master Kira, but if it's really important then you can count on me" the lieutenant said, while giving the brown haired pilot a friendly smile.

Truly grateful for that, Kira nodded his thanks to the both of them. Then he took a small glance over at miss Murrue that was busy chating with Mayu about what kind of game they where going to play. Yet after listening to them a bit, it quickly became clear to him that Mayu had apparently decided on monopoly, which wasn't really all that strange, she had always liked those kind of games that took a few hours to finish.

And even true, he really would like to join them. He had something very important to talk with his friend and the lieutenant about. He might not have shown any signs of it yesterday.

But doing his fight with Athrun he had once more sensed a certain blond man's present. But unlike last time he had actually been able to pinpoint a more exact source of the weird emotions.

It had been coming from the one Spengler class, that had taken part in yesterday's battle. So now that their meeting was finally over, he really wanted to ask Amagi if he had seen anybody, while working together with the Earth Forces, who looked like Mu.

But as suspicious as he was getting about the blond man's suppositive death by the Dominion's last attack, he still didn't want to bring any of this up with miss Murrue around. He wanted to be absolutely sure that it was really him that invoked his senses, whenever he was nearby.

Fortunately it did not take very long before Mayu practically draged her mother and Cagalli out of the room. And with nothing else to do up there, it did not take long before everybody else was gone too, leaving behind the two pilots and the lieutenant.

"So what do you want to talk about Kira buddy?" Dearka asked sleepy, while scratching the back of his neck in a rough way, which actually did make it seemed like he had something stuck back there he just couldn't get off.

Hearing him ask that. Kira looked slightly thoughtful as he tried to come up with the best way to get his question about Mu out. And finally after a few long seconds in deep silence he lift his head and looked over, at the two men.

"I think that it's best that we go down to my room, I have something down there that will properly make it a lot easier to answer, what I want to ask!" He explained in a very, very serious tone, which made the two other men nod slowly in understanding.

And once he saw them do that, Kira turned around on one foot and quickly made his way over to the door, with Amagi and Dearka following closely behind him.

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It was about two or three minutes later, when the two pilots and the lieutenant arrived at Kira's room.

"Please come on in" the brown haired boy said. Then reached over and preassed the button that was meant to get the door open, and without waiting for them to give him a responsed.

He hurried stepped inside the room, where he immediately made his way over to the small bookcase. Which was build in to the thick metal wall, on the left side of the chamber. Once over there, he used a few seconds to search for what he needed, and when he finally found it, he pull out a brigh green photo album. And after turning a few pages, he found a good picture of the blond man.

As far as he remembered this photo had been taken down in the hangar shortly after the Archangel had left North Africa, days before the ship had ended up in Orb.

Mu was standing straight in the middle of the photo with a big grin on his face, and with his right arm wrapped securely around miss Murrue's waist, while his left one was holding on to miss Natarle in almost the exact same fashion.

And a single look at both of the women's faces made it pretty obvious that neither of them really liked Mu's signs of devotion. Yet if one where to take a closer look at the picture.

One would be able to see, that both of the captain's cheeks was slightly red and she did not look nearly as unhappy with the situations, as miss Natarle did.

The black haired woman actually looked quite a bit like she was just about ready to began scolding the blond pilot, for not following military processed and behaving like a small badly raised kid. From what Kira could recall from the incident, it had end up that way with her yelling at him, and the mechanics to act like full grown-up adults.

Which they all had of course promised her to do, only to break out in laugher the very second after she had left the hangar.

It was kinda normal, to behave like small noisy children down in there. When they had nothing else to do, something Kira was pretty certain that miss Natarle already knew.

But the black haired woman had always been very strict on following the rules and precise military regulation.

Which was honestly something he actually had to agree with her on, wasn't all that much of down in the hangar, when the mechanics, Mu and himself had been bored and was in the dire need of something to do.

It wasn't really a big wonder, why miss Natarle had call them childish and ill behaved from time to time, but she also did seem to understand, why they had the need to act like a bunch of idiots.

If the pilots and the mechanics didn't build a strong bound with each other. It was kinda doubtful, that the pilots would feel safe fighting in whatever machine that the mechanics had just looked over.

He for one knew for sure, that if there was somebody else other then Murdoch and the rest of the gang, down in the hangar, who was fixing up the Freedom. There was no way he would enter combat, without running a complete check-up on the gundam first.

Yet as he stood there, thinking about some of the more pleasant memories from the first war, somebody suddenly placed a hand on his shoulder. Which was enough to make him jump slightly, as he hurried turned around to see who was there.

"Are you all right Kira? For a moment there, you did seem to be very far away from here" Dearka said, while taking a short glance down at the picture, his friend had been staring so intensely at the last couple of minutes. Once he saw, who was on the photo, he instantly knew what Kira was up to, and that alone was more then enough to make him forget how tired he was.

But even true he was deeply curious about the response. He just couldn't help, but wonder who exactly the third person was on the picture. Of course he recognized both the captain and La Flaga, but the black haired woman, wasn't one he had seen before on this ship.

Yet before he could ask about her, Kira slowly shook his head a few times, to get his mind away from the past, and back to the present.

"I'm fine Dearka. I just couldn't help but think about the past. Back then I might have hated piloting the Strike and fighting the war. But when I give it some thought, there was actually a few nice memories between all the fighting" the brown haired boy said.

Then took a look over at the photo on the next page.

Which show him and Lacus standing beside each other up on the deck with the wind blowing strongly around them, which resulted in her long pink hair flying around all over the place. Yet that had only served to make the whole event even more hilarious.

Especially for Mu, who had been the one to take the picture.

Even true it had turned out, to be a bigger challenge then any of them had originally thought.

Back then his fellow pilot and friend, had definitely been having an amusing time, seeing Lacus and him fight to gain at least a little control, over her long pink hair flapping around in the strong wind.

He did however not get the opportunity, to disappear completely in to another reality this time around, before Dearka once more interrupted his thoughts.

"So just who is that black haired woman Kira? I never seen her before" Dearka said. Highly curious about who exactly, that woman was. He had after all been a part of the Archangel's crew for quite some time now.

So seeing a picture of somebody, he didn't recognize was actually somewhat strange to him. He just couldn't help but wanting to know, why this woman wasn't a part of the ship's crew anymore.

Slowly moving his gaze away from the second photo. Kira looked a bit at his friend before he gave him a slightly sad smile. "Well she isn't a complete stranger to you Dearka. You do actually know a little about her, I'm pretty sure her name has been mention a few times. Especially around those times, when we where facing the Dominion and her forces!" Kira said, while thinking back to the battle, they had with the black Archangel.

Hearing Kira tell him all of that, was of course all Dearka needed to figure out the identity, of the black haired lady. "So this woman used to be the second in-command of the Archangel and the captain of the Dominion, Natarle Sabiruel!" He call out in a loud tone.

Raising an eyebrow at that Kira let out a small chuckle, before he decided to correct Dearka's minor mistake, when he pronounced her name. "Actually it's Badgiruel Dearka! But yeah that's her" he explained, then thought briefly about his last conversation with the woman, doing the battle of Boaz.

"Ok I'm bad at remembering names, so sue me. But I do have to admit that she doesn't look nearly as evil as I image. I guess that with her working together with that bastard to Azrael, I just figured that she was a witch of some kind, that was ready to fly away on a broom at any moment" Dearka said, while trying to recall some of the things, Miriallia had told him about this woman.

But the only thing he actually did remember for sure, was that she had apparently been very strict on following orders and had been a very good strategist. Something which had been made pretty clear, from the very first moment, the Dominion had started attacking them at the Mendel colony.

Yet while the two pilots was talking about all of this, Amagi was begining to get a little bit impatient waiting to hear, what exactly it was, the Freedom's pilot wanted to ask him.

So once there was a small break in their conversation, he instantly took it as an opportunity to remain them of his presence, which he did by clearing his throat loudly.

That alone was enough to make the two young men, cease with their discoursing about the past, and look over at the lieutenant.

"I'm sorry to interrupt you two, but I'm quite tired after yesterday's events, so I could really use a good cup of steaming hot coffee. And a few hours to get a little rest and time for myself. So could you please hurry up a bit?" He asked, in the most friendly voice he could manage, in the totally and completely exhaust condition that he was in right now.

Looking a bit at him. Kira could easily tell that there was more then a few things that was troubling the lieutenant, so not wanting to waste anymore of his time, then he already had. Kira hurried stepped away from his fellow pilot and friend, and over beside the other man, to show him the picture of the 'supposably dead man.'

"Well I was wondering Mr Amagi, if you had seen anybody who looked just like this? While working with the Earth Forces" He said, while pointing at the blond man who was obviously enjoying flirting with the two beautiful women.

Not paying much attention to the rest of the photo, Amagi slowly reached out and took the album away from the teenage, to get a better look, at the person Kira was asking him about.

"Hmm I...I don't think I have seen this man before, but maybe this could be..." He said in a far away tone, while trying hard to imagine, what the blond captain of the Earth Forces ship John Paul Jones would look like without that freakish looking mask, he was always wearing. But it was kinda hard to guess if this blond man on the photo, was the same one who had been bossing them around ever since Orb joined the Earth Forces.

Hearing the man mumble like that to himself, Dearka immediately took a couple of steps towards him, so he was better able to understand what exactly the lieutenant was saying. Unfortunately all of his whispering didn't really tell Kira or Dearka anything useful.

So after watching him a bit longer Dearka just couldn't stay quiet anylonger. He was frankly ready to crack with curiosity, and it wasn't hard to tell that Kira felt pretty much the same way.

"It's not like we expected you to know him in person lieutenant. But if you have seen any signs of him on that Spengler class, then please tell us, it's very important for the entire crew, to know as much as possible about this man!" The Murasame pilot explained, he might not have been having as close a bound with Mu as many of the other crew members had.

But he had still respected the blond man greatly and been deeply sadden, when he apparently had gotten kill by the Dominion. The sight of the Strike and it's pilot throwing itself in front of the Archangel's bridge had been just as terrible, in his eyes as when Yzak had been kill, not that there was anybody to blame for his death, not even Kira.

When Yzak had traveled all the way to Orb to find the Strike gundam, he had been more then ready to kill a ton of innocent people, who had nothing at all to do with the war.

And when he gave it some serious thought.

He realized that he would properly have done the samething, had he been the one piloting the Strike gundam. There was just no way he could sleep calmly at night, had he been able to do something to stop a mass murderer. Even if that guy had at some point been one of his best friends.

It was just about that time, when Amagi's voice brought his deeply serious thoughts about Yzak to an end. "To be honest, I'm not totally certain if it's the same guy, but doing our time working with the Earth Forces, Todaka and I had a few meetings with a guy that was wearing a scary looking mask. I don't know the first thing about what he looked like, under that thing. But one thing I can tell you. is that they both have the same blond hair colour!" The lieutenant explained, then asked who the guy on the picture was.

But even true both of the pilots had heard Amagi's question. Neither of them where quick to give him a responsed. They both just stood there with a far away look on their faces, which made it perfectly obvious, that he had really given each of them something to think about.

Yet before he could decide if it was, best to wait with the answer until another time.

They all suddenly heard a loud happy sound echoing through the room. And it was only a brief second later when a certain green robotic bird, flew over and dropped down on his own's left shoulder, where he once again call out his own name.

Which was enough to snap the brown haired man out of his thoughts.

And without saying a single word, he slowly reached up after the small toy, that instantly leaped over on to his offer hand. Once there he carefully brought it down in front of his face, so he was looking directly at it.

But as he was doing that, it did not take long, before he took a couple of deep breaths. Then started talking in a far away voice. "His name was Mu La Flaga, he used to be a part of the Archangel's crew a very long time ago, and he was also dating the captain. She was completely crushed when he was kill at Jachin Due, or at least that is what we thought happened. But in the last few battles I have senses his presence more then a few times!" Kira said.

Then tried briefly to figure out, why he had suddenly gained the ability, to sense a few certain individuals presence.

He knew that Mu had been able to sense when Rau Le Creuset when he was nearby, but not once doing the last war had he been able to do that.

It was almost like the somewhat weird ability, had just appeared from out of nowhere, not that he was going to complain about that. If it had not been for that ability it would have been impossible for him to know, that his big brother figure was still alive.

Realizing just how utterly important this was to the two teens and so many others on the white space ship. Amagi again looked down at the photo, unfortunately there he was no way for him to know for sure, if this man and Neo Roanoke was one and the same person.

"I'm sorry guys, but I really don't know. That mask he was wearing was covering up most of his face, it was only the lower part that could be seen. And that's just not enough for me to tell, if Neo Roanoke really was the second pilot of the Strike gundam!" Amagi said, deeply sorry that there was nothing else he could do to help the two teenages solve this mystery.

Slowly removing his eyes from the photo, Kira looked over at the lieutenant, with a slightly down expression on his face. "You don't need to apologize Mr Amagi, it's not your fault that he is wearing a mask, I guess that the only thing we can do now is to try and capture this Neo Roanoke, that pretty much the only way to know for sure if he really is Mu La Flaga!" The brown haired teen said.

Just as he reached over and took the album from the lieutenant and flipped it back shut, then he once more started talking to the two other men in there. "But for now I would prefer if this small chat stays between the three of us, I really don't want miss Murrue to know about this" the male Yamato said, while at the same time wondering just how exactly, they where going to capture this Neo Roanoke.

Thinking thoroughly about what the Freedom's pilot had just told them, Amagi nodded slowly in understanding.

"I'll be extra certain to keep my mouth shut when around her. But I most admit I'm curious about how exactly you are planing on capturing this guy. From what I could tell, he was quite an outstanding soldier, who was not afraid of getting his hands dirty, when need be" Amagi said.

Then quickly went over his few encounters, he had with the mask man.

"If you ask me, the two of you are in for a serious challenge if you want to take that guy alive. He is not the type of person that will surrender without at least trying to fight back. No matter what you do to bring him down unharmed" the lieutenant said.

Before telling the two pilots that the entire thing got even more complicated, when the only clue they had about Mu's whereabouts, was whenever Kira sensed him.

Taking a small glance over at each other, both Kira and Dearka knew that the lieutenant was right. It was kinda difficult to find the Hawk of Endymion when the only lead they actually had, was Kira's ability to sense, when he was nearby.

It just couldn't be denied, that the whole thing would have been so much easier, had the Orb lieutenant actually been able, to give them some information, that could have helped them track the blond man down, or perhaps told them why he hadn't return back home if he had been alive all of this time since the last war. There frankly was a lot of things, that just didn't make any sense, about 'Mu's' current actions.

Which served the make the two teenages even more determined, to get in contact with him, so they could get some answers to their many questions.

"Each of us gets what you are saying lieutenant, but it doesn't really change anything, we still need to have a chat with this 'Neo' character!" The former Buster pilot said, using a tone of voice that made it pretty clear, that he wasn't going to change his mind about this.

And it was only shortly after that, when Amagi saw the brown haired kid nodded slowly in agreement. "I completely agrees with Dearka about this, if Mu is out there somewhere I need to speak with him. There is just noway around that. Beside I think that it would be great if Mayu could finally have somebody that she could see as her father" Kira said, while thinking about how Mu had saved the little girl two years ago, doing the battle of Orb.

"I guess that there is just noway to talk the two of you out of this, not that I was going to do that anyway, but please promise me that you will be careful when fighting that man, I have already seen more then enough young pilots getting killed" Amagi said.

Then turned around and bagan making his way towards the exit of the room. Yet as he did that, he call back to the pilots that he would be going to the mess hall now, to get some coffee, and that he would talk with them later.

Once he was gone Dearka again turned his attention back towards Kira. "I frankly would like to do something about Mu right here and now, but it seems like we got no other choice but to wait, until the next time you run in to him" the blond boy said, while scratch the side of his head in a thoughtful manner, seriously trying to come up with an idea that would be better then sit around on the Archangel doing nothing.

"Yeah I too would like to do something about all of this. But it's not like we can just take off and leave the ship behind to go search for this Neo guy. So I guess we just have to stay put for the moment, until we get an opportunity to talk with that man" Kira said, then turned and walked slowly back over to the bookcase and placed the photo album back where it belonged.

Watching his friend do that, Dearka slowly stretched both of his arms up over his head.

He might have woken up a bit when he had realized what it was that Kira had wanted to talk about.

But now that the conversation was over he could once more feel the deep exhaustion from the lack of sleep last night. And if anybody asked him, he was actually a bit relieved, that they had nothing else to talk about, at least for now.

And once Kira turned his attention back towards him. He instantly told his friend that he would be going now too. And that he could easily hear his and Miriallia's bed calling out after him.

Smiling slightly at that, the Freedom's pilot could easily understand why Dearka wasn't really in the mood to talking anylonger. And after watching him yawn loudly a single time, Kira began speaking to him again, also sounding highly tired and lazy at the moment.

"I'll talk with you later Dearka. Maybe if you are up to it, I can beat you in a few video games, once you are done sleeping" Kira said, with a small challenging grin on his face, which he knew from past experience that his friend just wouldn't be able to resist.

And he did not have to wait long for a reply. "Yeah right, I'm seriously going to make you eat those words Kira. And seeing as you where the one, to issue this socall challenge, I do believe that I have the right to choose what weapons we are going to fight with!" Dearka said loudly, already knowing what game they where going to compete with each other in.

"We'll just have to see about that Dearka, I'm definitely not going down without a fight" Kira declared determined, and with a expression on his face that was enough to make it completely clear to the other pilot, that he took this very serious.

But that just served to make Dearka feel even more excited about the idea of playing video games a few hours. Maybe if they where just a bit lucky, they could get a few of the new pilots to join in as well.

"Get some rest too Kira. You are certainly going to need it if you are even going to have the smallest chance to beat me!" Dearka boasted in a proud tone, just before he turned around and left the room.

Seeing him go like that, Kira slowly moved over to his and Lacus bed and dropped down on to it. Where he spent the next many seconds just looking up at the bare ceiling.

Wondering briefly, what kind of video game Dearka wanted them to play.

He just hoped that it wasn't some kind of sport or racing game. Those type of games wasn't really his thing, especially because he was quite bad at them. If he actually had a choice in the matter, he would honestly prefer a good well told RPG over most other games.

Yet after thinking about that for a few minutes. He slowly reached over and picked up one of the many comic books, that was located over on his wife's side of the highly comfortable bed.

And once he got it open, it did not take long before he was slowly reading the words imprinted on the first page.

000000

Meanwhile quite far away from the snow covered area the Archangel was hiding in.

Neo was sitting alone in his room, thinking about everything, that had happened in yesterday's battle, against the Minerva and her forces. He was honestly more then a little displeased about Auel, getting killed by the Impulse.

But at least Sting was doing all right.

Even true the Chaos had gotten, more then a little damage from Sting's fight with the Freedom gundam and that blue Murasame, it wasn't overly hard to tell that it was going to take quite a while to repair that mobile suit.

It wasn't like the Freedom's pilot and been very gentle, when he cut off the head and both arms on the green mobile suit. He had already heard more then a few of the John Paul Jones' mechanics complain, about what a nightmare it was going to be, to get the Chaos fully operational again. and that it would properly, be much easier if they got rid of the rest of it, instead of bothering wasting time trying to fix what was left.

But as much as all of this was getting on the mask man's nerves. He was also greatly annoyed by the new assignment, he had received from Lord Djibril not that long ago, which was to deal with Northern Europe, that up until now had been working together with Zaft. If it had been under normal circumstance, he had nothing against going there to destroy the Zaft forces in that area.

Yet one look at the data that had been send along with the message, was more then enough to make him feel, like his so called lunch, was just about to reappear from his stomach at any moment now.

He had nothing against killing an enemy soldier, or an entire bunch of them. But if they actually brought this kind of massive mobile suit in to a city, there wouldn't really be much left of it when they finally moved on.

"I really don't get what that bastard was thinking, about when he order something like that made!" Neo muttered out loud, then took another look at what information he had about the Earth Alliance's newest mobile suit or whatever it was supposed to be called.

And after spending a few long minutes reading all of it one more time, he slowly leand backwards in his seat and looked straight up at the ceiling. "It weighs over four hundred tons, I never heard of a mobile suit, being that heavy before. What kind of lunatic am I working for?" He wondered quietly, while looking at the few pictures, he had of the Destroy gundam.

It didn't really take much of a genius, to see that this mobile suit had a whole lot of destructive power, which was properly the reason why it had gotten it's inventiveful name in the first place.

"Perhaps I should seriously consider finding myself another job, maybe if I'm lucky they need a new ice-cream man or hot-dog vender back home" he joked, already knowing that the possibility of him actually getting a job like that was extremely low, but it didn't really hurt anybody to joke around about it, at least not when he was sitting here all on his own.

He did however not get a whole lot of time to think about that, before somebody knocked quite hard on the door to his small room. And even true he wasn't really in the mood to talk right now. He still call out to his visiter to come on in.

And it was only a second later, when Sting Oakley stepped in to the room, with his left arm resing in a sling. Fortunately according to the ship's doctor the arm wasn't broken.

But when the Chaos had crashed full speed in to the sea, the shoulder had been dislocated. Which according to Sting had hurt like hell. He had almost been as pissed off at that, as Auel's death.

And Neo frankly hoped that he wasn't here to complain more about his injury and all of yesterday's events. He had already heard more then enough of that, to last him a life time.

"So Sting, do I have to guess your reason for visiting, or are you going to tell me?" The mask man joked with a small grin on his face, which grew slightly bigger when he noticed that the green haired man got even more cranky at his somewhat foolish question.

But just when Neo was begin to believe that the Chaos pilot was going to start yelling at him. He saw the green haired man take a deep breath then began speaking in the most calm tone, he could muster right now.

"Well I just want to know what our next move are going to be? If we are just a bit lucky, we can find the Minerva before it's crew have the chance to repair everything that got damage yesterday!" He said loudly, then got a light thoughtful glint in his eyes before he continued telling what he wanted to do.

"I really, really want to see that damn ship explode in a nice pretty light. Besides I also own the Impulse a good beating, not to mention the Freedom!" The pissed off pilot said, obviously believing that the next time he encountered those two mobile suits, he was going to defeat both of them relatively easy.

Raising an eyebrow at that, Neo was slightly tempted, to crack a few jokes about Sting's success rate against the two enemy mobile suits. But once he took notice of the almost hysterical look which Sting had on his face. The mask man decided to keep his mouth shut and not throw anymore fuel on the fire, he frankly didn't feel like listening to a long speech, about how Sting was going to rip and tear the Freedom and the Impulse apart.

So after watching the young pilot walk back and forth a few times. Obviously trying to make a trench in the floor, while at the same time muttering out whatever highly colourful course, he could think of about the two gundams.

And it was only when he finally stopped doing that and looked back at him, that Neo gave him a reply.

"Unfortunately it would very much seem like I have to disappoint you, my aggressive friend. But we are not going after the Minerva again, we have been order to deal with whatever Zaft forces, that are currently assembled in Central and Northern Europe!" He said, not bothering one bit to hide, that he wasn't overly delighted, about these orders.

If he had to be completely honest, he would much rather prefer a battlefield, where there was no civilians around. It wasn't overly hard to figure out that if they actually went through with something like this, a lot of innocent people was going to lose their lives.

He did however not get long to think about that, before Sting's next words interrupted his thoughts. "Ahhhh damn it all! I really want to destroy the Minerva to avenge Auel's death. But I guess that just has to wait until another time, and be satisfied with slaughtering all those Zaft bastards in Europe. They are really going to regret that they messed with me in the first place!" He said, already looking forward to whatever battle, that was waiting for them in the future.

Looking a bit at him, Neo rolled his eyes a single time underneath the mask. "Calm down Sting, it will take quite awhile before we are actually, ready to handle such a tough mission, beside there is no way you can fight with your arm like that, and with the Chaos in that totally beat up condition. So why not take advantage of that and get some rest, you do seem like, you could really use it" Neo said.

While seriously hoping that he wouldn't just say something about not needing to rest, and that the only thing he wanted to do, was to make Zaft and the Freedom pay for what they had done.

Yet surprisingly Sting actually seemed to be considering what Neo had just told him. And even true, he still looked completely and utterly pissed off he slowly moved his hand over to massage his highly acheing left shoulder, which was obviously quite painful.

"I guess you are right Neo. But once I'm completely healed up and the Chaos is fully repaired, we will be heading for Europe, you can be damn sure of that. I need to teach the world not to mess with me!" He said, sounding very much like he was the one in charge of the two of them.

Not that Neo cared very much about the green haired man's boasting, he just nodded a single time in understanding. "I see, you do sound quite determined about this Sting. But even true I do understand you lack of patient, there is simply no way you are going to win against anybody, if you are just about ready to collapse, because of exhaustion. So go back to your room and get some sleep already" the mask man ordered in a slightly bossy tone.

Thinking briefly about what Neo had just said to him, the young pilot gave his lower lips a light bite.

"I know what you are saying is truth Neo. But I just don't feel like sleeping right now, I would much rather find some stupid idiot and beat the crap out of him. I don't even remember, the last time I felt this frustrated!" He yelled out, then gave Neo's desk a hard kick, knocking over the few things on it.

Getting more and more annoyed with Sting's violent behaviour, the mask man looked directly up at him. Then began talking in a somewhat down to earth tone. "If you are really that stressed-out, then go to your room and watch a movie or play a few video games. Just don't come here and take out your anger on me. It's not like I'm overly delighted about Auel getting kill or the Minerva escaping from us one more time" he warned.

Before slowly placing his small aquarium, back where it belonged on the desk.

It was only by share luck, that he had actually manage catch the small yet important item, before Sting's hostile and completely thoughtless action had send it crashing to the floor.

Seeing the mask man do that and noticing the displeased tone in his voice, Sting knew that it was properly best that he cut his time in there shut. It was pretty obvious that Neo wasn't pleased, with the idea of him destroying his office, and everything in it.

So he decided to take his advise and go down and play a couple of video games, then get some sleep. "All right I'll be going now Neo, I'll talk with you later" he said then turned around and swiftly left the room.

And once the door flew back, shut behind him. Neo slowly reached up and removed his mask, which he placed down on the table in front of him. "Perhaps tomorrow I should ask them to remove his memories of Auel" the blond man whispered to himself.

While at the same time rubbing both of his eyes in a thoughtful manner. He might not like the idea of actually doing something like that.

But if Sting continued behaving like this, there was a chance that he would run off at some point to fight the Minerva on his own. He might not be as mentally unstable as Stella and Auel, but from time to time he did show that he could be just as psychopathical, as the other two.

So it was most likely best to take a few precautions. He quite frankly didn't want to see Sting leave in the same totally brutal fashion that Stella had left in. They didn't even know if the blond haired girl was still alive.

But if she was, it was highly unlikely that she was feeling all that well. It had after all been quite along time since she had last gotten any of the necessary treatments, that was meant to keep her breathing.

And if they didn't somehow rescued her, she was properly doomed to leave this world in a highly painful manner.

Not really something that he liked thinking about, he did after all care for all three of the kids. So if anybody ever asked him about it, and he had to tell that person the honest truth.

He frankly didn't feel like any of those kids deserved to be messed up in this war, it would have been much better had they gotten a real education and lived a normal life, with a whole bunch of friends their own age. Instead of living the life of a soldier.

But as much as he would like to help them there wasn't really a whole lot he could do about it, which made a deep angry frown appear on his forehead. "Damn it this is just wrong!" He muttered out loud, then got back up on his feet.

Yet seeing as he had been sitting there for almost three hours straight, each of his legs was kinda sore. Which cost him to fall over almost immediately after he got out of the chair, and before he could do anything to stop it, he slammed his head in to the corner of the desk, knocking himself out before he had the time to try and figure out what was happening.

And as he landed painfully on the floor, he saw a few unknown images, the first one of a brown haired gorgeous woman, that was smiling sweetly, at him as she slowly moved towards him.

But before he could really take in the lovely sight of her, she was slowly replaced by another image. This time of a brown haired teenages boy that was holding hands, with a pink haired girl, each of them where smiling at him too.

He did however not get anytime to figure out who they where. Before his painful aching mind flashed onward through a whole bunch, of images of people, who he did not know.

And it was only when he saw the beautiful woman again standing beside a small girl with the same hair colour, that he regain consciousness again.

But while there was no way for him to deny, that the injury didn't hurt.

He still didn't move from the floor. He just kept on laying there looking up at the ceiling, trying hard to figure out, who all of those people where. Yet in the end it didn't matter how much he thought about it, he weren't able to put even one name on any of them.

"What the heck is going on?!" He asked himself in a low tone.

Just before he slowly moved over to his bed, and laid down on top of it. But even true he really want to rest up and get his mind back on track, he just couldn't forget all of the happy faces, looking at him.

To be continued.


	45. Chapter 45

Chapter 45

It was a few days after the last battle.

The Minerva laid docked at a smaller Zaft base.

Which the captain after much consideration had decided would be best place to go. Seeing as it had been closed ally base to get to from their last location, in the tiny canal they had been hiding out in.

But even true the base wasn't the biggest one around. It still had a pretty tough defense, which the many different kind of Zaft mass-produced mobile suits assembled there.

From what they had been told when they arrived at the base, it was mostly used to fix and repair the more heavy damage mobile suits, that was simply impossible for the ships or bases to fix and repair in just a day or two.

And when one took a look around the place it was pretty obvious that many of the machines here needed quite the overhaul before they would work properly again, but it was much cheaper then making a brand-new mobile suit.

There had actually been a little talk about leaving Luna's ZAKU here, so the bases personnel could take a look at what was left of it. Not that Shinn cared much about that right now.

He was much more interested in reading Stella's medical report which he had nabbed down from the doctor's office not long ago. Fortunately most of the grey space ship's crew was in their beds fast asleep.

Now that they where finally out of danger, many of them had been kinda excited about getting the long waited opportunity to rest up, and recover their strength till the next time, they encountered the Earth Forces.

And as much as Shinn wanted to follow everybody else example and sleep the entire night away. There was simply no way he could do that until he could figure out what was going on with Stella.

It didn't really take a big medical degree, to tell that the girl was getting worth and worth by every single moment that went by.

The unusual way she was breathing would make even a person, that had smoked a big part of his life raise an eyebrow in concern, and the completely pale look on her face, made clear for everybody that she was more then just a little sick.

But no matter how many times he asked about it, neither the captain or the doctor, had wanted to tell him anything about her condition. So in the end he had decided to figure it out on his own, even if it meant that he had to break a few rules in the process.

Fortunately nobody had been awake to witness his completely out of hour visit to the medical bay. Actually the only person he had meet until now, was a female crew member. Who hadn't really paid that much attention to him, she had seemed much more interested in reaching her destination instead of talking with him, something he was honestly quite happy about.

He did not want anybody to know what he was up to. If anybody where to figure out, that he had taken these fields about Stella's condition, he would properly be in a whole lot of trouble.

So he seriously hoped that he had the necessary time to put them back where they belonged, once he was done reading them. Which could obviously take some time judging from the immense size of the report.

But just as long as the doc hadn't used to many hard words in this. He was kinda sure that it wouldn't take him long to get the basis idea, about what was really going on with the girl.

Yet if this damn thing was fill with a ton of words he did not know, it could possibly end up taking him a very big part of the night to read through it all.

He might have gotten the basis training in first aid back at the academy.

But that certainly did not mean, he had much knowledge about what abnormal things that could be happening inside another person's body, where they actually having some kind of highly serious illness. But if he was somehow able to figure out, if his crush was going to be ok, then that was definitely good enough for him, everything else honestly didn't matter one bit.

He did however not get long to think about that before he saw a familiar person coming towards him from the other direction. "Hey Shinn, what are you doing up this time of night?" Athrun asked, while taking a small sip from the bottle of water he was holding on to with his left hand.

Thinking briefly about what to say it only took a couple of seconds to come up with a believable story, to the blue haired commander's question.

"Well to be completely honest commander Zala, I slept most of the day away while traveling here. So I'm not really all that tired right now, so I figured that instead of wasting my time doing nothing, I might as well read over the last few reports, about the Impulse and Core Splendor. I want to make absolutely certain that everything on them function as it's suppose to" He said.

A small part of him somewhat tempted to give a comment or two, about him and Nicol being the only pilots who still had working mobile suit on board the enormous grey Zaft ship.

Yet in the end he decide to keep his mouth shut, seeing as he wanted to get back to his room as quickly as possible, so he could start reading this so called report about the Impulse, and he definitely couldn't do that if he actually started arguing with Athrun now.

Smiling a bit at that Athrun took another mouthful of water. He didn't really show it much, but he was actually a bit surprised that Shinn would be working this time of night.

It wasn't really something the boy would usually do unless somebody told him to.

And from what Athrun had been quick to notice on his small trip around the ship, was that there was nobody else awake other then Shinn and himself, so pretty much the only logical explanation to Shinn working at this hour, was that he actually wanted to unless he was lying about the report.

Not that Athrun actually thought he would do that even for a second. The two of them might not get along all that well, but he frankly didn't think, their friendship was that bad, that Shinn would find it necessary to lie to him about what he was doing.

And seeing as he really did believe that the boy, was telling him the truth he began speaking to him in a encouraging tone. "Well keep up the good work Shinn, we are all counting on you incase of trouble" the blue haired man said, before he stepped past the other pilot and continued on his way, down the ship's almost completely dark hall.

Blinking a bit at that Shinn had to admit that he was a bit taken back at Athrun's encouragement.

He knew that they hadn't been on the most friendly themes recently. Not since the whole fiasco with the Freedom and that light blue Murasame, helping some of their followers steal that shuttle and the Gaia gundam.

After that affair the two of them had been glaring more then a bit at each other the next many days. It had almost seemed impossible for them to be in the same room together.

And just when Shinn had started to believe that Athrun was nothing else other then a stupid bastard, he had to be all nice and friendly like that. "Damn it, I don't think I'll ever be able to understand that guy, he just so weird!" He muttered loudly to himself.

Just before he turned and kept on heading back to his and Rey's room. Still wondering how the heck the last Zala could be so kind at time, while at other times Shinn would like nothing else other then to beat and punch the crap out of him.

But after walking a bit he came to the conclusion that he could always think about Athrun's weird behavior later. Right now it was much more important that he tried to figure out what was going on with Stella.

And with that in mind he began walking even faster, determined to get back to his room as quickly as possible.

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At the same time elsewhere on the ship.

Athrun had just arrived at his own destination, where he slowly looked around for any other sign of life.

Yet from what he could tell through the darkness that was covering the hangar. He was the only person there at the moment. Something he was honestly quite relieved about. There was just no way he wanted anybody to know what he was up too, it wasn't like messing around with another pilots mobile suit, was something that was all that comment.

But it wasn't like he could actually ask Rey for permission to snoop around inside the white ZAKU. So he simply needed to do it without anybody else around to see what he was doing.

If there was somebody on the ship that just happened to notice that he was inside Rey's mobile suit, they would most likely believe that he was trying to sabotage it in someway.

Not that he really thought doing something like that was necessary, the half messed up ZAKU was after all in a pretty bad condition.

Not that it matter all that much in Athrun's eyes, the only thing he wanted to do was check the ZAKU Phantom's computer for any useful information about what Rey and the Chairman was really up too.

Even true he kinda doubt that it would be that easy, but it was at least worth a try.

So after taking one more look around the hangar, he hurried made his way over to the Phantom. Which meant, that it did not take many minutes before he was inside the mobile suit, quietly typing away at the keyboard in front of him.

"Hmm lets see now, weapon status no that wouldn't tell me anything, the same goes with the OS status. It doesn't seem like there is anything of major use here" the blue haired man whispered to himself, as he continued searching thoroughly through the ZAKU's databanks for even the smallest bit of information, that could shine at least a little light on what the Chairman and Rey was thinking.

But after a few minutes of intense typing on the keyboard, he slowly moved his fingers away and lean backwards in the cockpit. Resting his back on the seat behind him.

"Ahhh damn it, there is nothing here!" He growled softly.

Then once more reached out and typed in a few more commands, but like expected the white war machine, was completely empty for information. "Well I guess that it was a bit of a long shoot to think that I would find anything in here, he isn't really that kind of person, who would make foolish mistakes like that" Athrun whispered in a low tone.

Yet just as he was about to shut the mobile suit down again, he noticed a single field that immediately caught his attention. "What the...? Why the hell would he have a field call the Ultimate Coordinator?" He asked himself. Frankly more then a little puzzled about what interested Rey could have in Kira, as far as he knew the two of them had never even meet.

So after taking one more look out in to the hangar to make sure that he was still alone, he decided to put his deep curiosity to rest by seeing what was inside the field that might as well have Kira's name on it.

And it was only a brief second later, when he saw that it contented a whole bunch small and long video footages of the Freedom gundam doing battle with more then a few other mobile suits.

"Why would this interest him so much? He doesn't even know Kira!" He wondered softly, just before he slowly reached over and pressed down on the very first one of the incredible long list of videos, which meant that it did not take long, before the small screen in there show the Freedom doing battle with the Providence gundam at Jachin Due.

He might just be able to see a bit of logic in Rey gathering video footages, of their encounters with the Freedom up until now. But it made next to no sense to him, that he would have something like this saved on his mobile suit, without having some kind of reason for it.

Yet as he sat there watching the two extremely powerful war machines, slammed their beam sabers together. He suddenly heard a loud noise from somewhere out in the hangar, which could only mean that he wasn't alone any longer.

And knowing that, he instantly shut down the video footages, seriously hoping that nobody had noticed the light from the cockpit. Fortunately it very much seemed like, the individual down on the floor, was more occupied with his own problems.

And it did not take many seconds before Athrun heard a familiar voice complain loudly about something. "Ahhhh damn it man! I can't believe that I completely forget all about having to turn in these damn reports. If Aves ever hears about this, he will properly kill me!" Vino grumble displeased, knowing quite well just how punctual the ship's chief engineer, could be at times.

Yet as the young mechanic continued bellyaching about his grand misfortune, he wasn't even close to realizing, that he was not the only person currently present down there. And that the other person was getting quite impatient waiting for him to leave again.

"Now where was it I put those stupid things?" He asked loudly, obviously searching through something not that far away, from the one armed white ZAKU.

And from what Athrun could tell from his location inside the ZAKU, Vino was obviously having some trouble finding what he needed, and the mechanic's next words made him tense up, more then just a little bit.

"Maybe I left them up in the Phantom!" He said, not even close to realizing that if he actually went up there, he might just end up with a big swelling bump on his head seeing as Athrun was already mentally preparing himself to knock the mechanic out, should he actually discover him up there.

Athrun just sincerely hoped, that it would not become necessary for him, to use the thing he had hidden away inside his jacket.

The two of them might not talk all that much with each other. But Athrun actually liked Vino, he was a friendly guy and very easy to get along with, unlike a few other people around the ship, namely Shinn and Rey.

Which was the reason why Athrun seriously disliked even the thought of actually having to kill the big scatterbrain of a mechanic. He truly didn't want Vino's life on his conscience.

He kinda felt like he had more then enough dark spots on it already. There honestly was no need to add yet another one, if there was anyway to avoid it.

So he would very much prefer just to knock the other teenage out. If he did end up having to somehow silent the mobile suit mechanic, he would only use the gun if it turned out that he had no other choice.

Fortunately it still seemed like Vino hadn't given completely up on trying to find the reports somewhere below the white ZAKU. He kept on talking loudly with himself, about where those damn things could be.

And just when Athrun heard a loud sound of something being thrown on the floor. Vino's next few words made him sigh softly in relief. "Yes here they are, I just knew that I left them back here, when Yolant and I was done looking over the Phantom, at least now I don't have to worry about Aves getting mad at me. Now I better get out of here and back to bed!" He said, before his steps could be heard slowly leaving the hangar.

Once gone Athrun rested his head at the seat behind him, where he let out a long breath, that made some of the hair covering his forehead fly around a bit. "That was pretty close, I was almost certain that he was going to discover that I was up here" the pilot whisper quietly to himself, while he slowly reached down in to his pocket and pull out a blank compact disc, which he instantly slide in to the ZAKU's computer.

"I still have no idea about what Rey is doing with all of these video footages of the Freedom. But maybe if I take a real good look at all of them I can figure something out" he mumbled, while he began transferring all of them over to the disc.

Yet knowing that could take some time he crawl back out of the ZAKU to make extra sure, that there was nobody else around, to capture him in the middle of what he was doing.

Beside if somebody actually where to notice him now, they would most likely think he was down there to take a look at the sad remains of the Saviour, which was at the currently time spread out right in the middle of the hangar.

Fortunately it really didn't seem like anybody else was going to visit the hangar tonight. Which gave Athrun the time to think about why exactly Rey was so fixated on the Freedom and Kira.

If the blond man frankly did have some kind of grudge against his childhood friend, the young Zala just didn't understand why. It was not like the two of them actually knew each other.

So there simply had to be another explanation to Rey's extremely high interest in the Freedom gundam.

And whatever it was, Athrun was completely determined to at least try and figure out what Rey was planing to do. Which could frankly be quite difficult, seeing as he hardly ever talked with the blond teen, as far as he remembered the two of them hadn't even had a real conversation together.

Which pretty much meant that the only thing he could do, was hope that one of the many footages, could somehow tell him, why in the world Rey would even bother taking the time, to download and save all of them in the first place. It wasn't like it was all that hard to gather together a bunch of data about the Freedom. It was after all the very mobile suit that had kill Rau Le Creuset two years ago.

Yet while he stood there thinking about that. He was not even close to realizing that the insane mask man, actually had something to do with Rey's enormous collection of the Freedom, fighting just about every type of mobile suit in existence.

He did however not get long to wonder about it before a small sound from inside the cockpit interrupted his thoughts.

"Ok that should be everything, now I just need to get out of here before Vino comes back to find something else he has forgotten" Athrun whispered softly, as he reached in to the cockpit and removed the disc again.

And after making sure, that it was securely hidden away in his pocket.

He took a small look around inside the Phantom just to make extra certain, that there was nothing left behind, which would somehow tell Rey and the mechanics that he had been rummaging around inside the white mobile suit's databanks.

But as far as he could tell there was really no evidence of his little crime, unless somebody actually started dusting for fingerprints, and that was highly unlikely. It wasn't like it was a safe, he had just broken in to with a crowbar or some other piece of junk.

And once everything was in perfect order inside the mobile suit, Athrun quickly began making his way towards the exit of the hangar, hoping not to run in to anybody on his way back to his room.

He knew that there was no other places on the ship, where he could look through all of this data, without having to worry about anybody seeing what he was doing.

He seriously didn't want Rey to realize what he was doing, the blond man might believe he was somewhat cautious about it.

But Athrun had know for quite a while now, that Rey had been keeping an eye on him, and it didn't really take much of a genius to figure out why. Especially not after discovering all of these videos of the Freedom.

If Rey really did despise Kira as much as it seemed, it wasn't difficult to understand why he didn't have much trust in him.

Seeing as he had know Kira through most of his life and was his best friend. Yet one thing that was still a big mystery to him, was why Rey was feeling this much hate towards Kira and the Freedom.

'If that blond bastard really is after Kira's life I need to warn him somehow. But how the hell am I suppose to do that without the Saviour or any other mobile suit. It's not like I can just send the Archangel an ordinary e-mail!' He thought displeased, while fighting the temptation to give the wall next to him a hard kick or two. He really didn't like where all of this was going.

And as much as he wanted to do something about it all. He knew that the only option he had right now, was to play possum until he got the right opportunity tell Kira about what he knew, or at least try and assemble even more information about Rey's intentions.

But now that his only means to leave the Minerva, had been reduce to nothing else then a few pieces of useless scrap metal. He whole spy thing was even more risky now then it was before.

He was pretty sure that if Rey realized just what he was doing. The blond man would not hesitate even a second about telling the Chairman about it. And if that wasn't a possibility he might just attempt to put a few extra holes through his head.

And there was no way he could permit that to happen, at least not before laying eyes on his son or daughter. 'You just wait and see Rey. I will in one way or another find the truth about all of this' he thought determined.

Just as he opened the door to his room and disappeared in there, making absolutely sure to lock the door behind him, so he wouldn't get any unwanted visitors, when he was busy looking over all the videos.

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So while Athrun was busy watching and wondering what was going through Rey's head.

The ending credits of the movie the two Hawke sisters and Nicol had just spend the last hour and a half watching.

"That was a fun movie, I really enjoyed it!" Meyrin said in a happy tone, from where she was sitting on the floor beside Nicol, who nodded slowly in agreement while taking a look back at Luna, who was like she herself preferred to put it, a prisoner in her own bed. Not really something she liked very much, which was one thing she made sure that every single person that paid her a visit knew.

And it was only once she felt Nicol's eyes looking at her, that she turned her gaze away from the screen. "I guess it was pretty good. But I just couldn't help but find it a bit lengthy about halfway through, they took way to much time preparing for the last battle" she said, not totally certain if she regret using an hour and a half of her life, to see this movie.

Hearing her say that. Nicol smiled gently at her.

"Well if you feel like that you can choose tomorrow's movie. According to what the doctor told us, when he was here earlier, it will still take a few days, before you are ready to get out of bed" the only male present in the small room told her, while he slowly reached out and busted back a few strands of hair that was covering her forehead.

Feeling him do that. Luna glared a bit up at him. "Please don't remind me of that Nicol, it's so damn boring being stuck in this thing for so long. I have already read my favorite book twice now!" She said, seriously hoping that her injured leg would hurry up and heal, so she could get out of there, and buy a few new books, she hadn't read yet.

Realizing what the problem was Meyrin instantly got a huge grin on her face, as she gave her only sibling an offer, she already knew that she would say no to. "Well if you want sis, I have a few gossip magazines back in my room, that you are more then welcome to borrow" the youngish of the two sisters said.

Not doing anything to hide that the only reason why she was offering this, was because she knew that it would annoy her older sister greatly.

Glaring a bit at her, Lunamaria slowly roll her eyes a few times, before she lean back to rest her tired head on the fluffy pillow behind her, where she instantly sighed softly in contentment, there was just no way she could deny how much her pillow, had helped her relax and loosen up these last couple of days.

But as she kept on watching the grey ceiling, she began talking in a small tone. "I'm really grateful for the offer Meyrin. But as desperate as I am to get something new to read, I want something that doesn't destroy most of my brain cells in the process" she mumbled just loud enough for them to hear.

After that she turned her head a bit to the side, where she slowly drifted off in to a calm sleep, without even saying goodnight to her irritating younger sister, or the man which she was finding herself growing more and more attach to everyday that went by.

Seeing that her sister was already far away in dreamland. Meyrin slowly stood back up where both of legs each gave a minor cracking sound from sitting on the floor for such a long time.

"Hmmm guess that there is no reason to stick around in here, so I think I'll follow her brilliant example and go get some sleep too. But if anything does happen Nicol please call me immediately" Meyrin said. Realizing that their green haired friend, would most likely be spending another night in there, on the light blue mattress which she herself had brought to him, so he had a place to sleep, while he was keeping an eye on her sister.

Yet as the red haired girl made her way over to the door, there was a small part of her that really wanted to stay there too.

But seeing as she had always been having a very difficult time, sleeping anywhere else other then her own bed, her loud rummaging around would most likely keep all of them wide awake, for the rest of the night.

And it wasn't really a big secret around the Minerva, that the oldest of the two redheads would always get extremely cranky whenever somebody was foolhardy enough to disturb her sleep.

And even true it had not been proven yet. Meyrin was almost totally certain that if the captain or the deputy commander would ever be stuck with the task of waking Lunamaria up, she would show them almost the exact same gratification she showed everybody else who pull her away from her journey in dreamland.

Looking a bit at her. Nicol knew just how tough it was on Meyrin leaving her sister right now. But each of them knew that it was absolutely necessary that the injured girl got as much rest as possible. And there was no way she could do that, with Meyrin kicking and rolling around, on a mattress only a few feet away from her.

"Please don't worry Meyrin, I promise you that I'll call you immediately should anything happen, even true I kinda doubt that. It is pretty easy to tell that she is getting better day by day" Nicol said quietly, while briefly thinking about the condition she had been in, after she had been hit by that Murasame.

Truly happy to hear that there was somebody with her sister. Meyrin nodded her thanks before she turned around and left the room. Leaving the young Amalfi to keep an eye on the only family member she had left.

Once gone, Nicol quickly got comfortable on the light blue mattress, where he laid a few short minutes just listening to his temporary roommate's soft breathing.

And even true the green haired man had yet realize it, the tiny sounds she made while she slept did have a somewhat calming and soothing effect on him. And it didn't take long before he too slowly drifted off to sleep.

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Meanwhile in Shinn and Rey's room.

The gundam pilot was sitting quietly in his chair slowly reading through everything that stood in the reports. "Damn it, this is more serious then I thought. I didn't really think that she was in such a bad condition" he said.

Honestly totally piss off by some of the things he had learnt from the doctor's report. It just couldn't be right, Stella where not suppose to be this sick and addicted to whatever drugs, the Earth Forces had so mercilessly fill her with.

Yet just as he was about to mutter out a few minor courses about them, the only other person in the room, interrupted his completely furious thoughts. "What are you reading Shinn?" Rey asked in a small tone, as he slowly lifted his head away from his pillow, and looked over at his roommate.

Hearing his friend asked that, Shinn instantly turned his attention over towards him.

"It's...It's nothing Rey, just a small story I got from the internet, it's actually pretty exciting!" He explained, before he continued reading the painful black words imprint on the white paper.

Looking a bit at him, Rey could of course easily tell that he was lying, not that he didn't know why. "Ok please do enjoy Shinn and good-night" the blond man said in his usually kind tone, before he turned over and looked in to the wall.

'If we don't do something drastic about that girl, we might end up losing his loyalty, and there is no way that can be allowed. So no matter what he decide to do with her, I will most likely have to involve myself in it' Rey thought determined.

Knowing that if they somehow lost Shinn they would have nobody around that could defeat and kill Kira Yamato.

'I just have to make sure to keep an eye on him, no matter what' the blond man told himself inside his mind. While he took one last glance at the teen, before he close his eyes and once more nodded off in to a deep sleep.

To be continued.


	46. Chapter 46

Chapter 46

Rey Za Burrel was slowly making his way back, to the room, he shared with Shinn.

It was pretty early in the morning, which could clearly be seeing by all of the morning mist outside the Minerva, as the slowly raising sun warmed up the cold earth, yet again.

And even true it was a pretty sight to be seen, Rey didn't really pay all that much attention to it. He was far more occupied trying to figure out, what more he could do to help Shinn, out with the blond woman.

It had only been about ten minutes or so since he woke up, where the very first thing he had noticed was that the report Shinn had 'borrowed' was laying on the desk beside the sleeping teenage, who apparently at one point doing the night had fallen asleep, in that chair.

And seeing as the reports had been so neatly placed on the desk. It could only mean that the teen had been spending a lot of time in that chair, thinking long and hard about what exactly he was suppose to do with that girl.

But even true he might not have made up his mind about it yet, Rey was pretty sure he knew where this was going, it wasn't really hard to figure out, that the only way the girl was going to survive, was by delivering her back to the Earth Forces.

Not really something he wanted to do. But if it was the only way to make absolutely certain that Shinn, would remain a loyal part of Zaft. Then he had no other choice then to help him out.

He had already brought the stolen report back to where they belonged in the med-bay.

Keeping an eye on Shinn and making sure that he was completely loyal, was after all one of the more important missions Gilbert had given him, when he was assigned to the Minerva, which was why he was pretty sure that the Chairman would approve of what he needed to do.

'I better hurry up, if we have to make a move today, it would definitely be best to do it while everybody else is still asleep' he thought determined, then began walking even faster, truly pleased to noticed that most of the other crew members, was still fast asleep.

It wasn't much later before he arrived at his destination, where he instantly reached out and got the door open. Once in there, he noticed that Shinn was still fast asleep in his chair.

But knowing that what little time they had was quite value. He didn't waste any of it as he stepped over next to the boy. "Shinn wake up! We have to talk about what we are going to do about that girl. If you really want to help her, it has to be done now, while the hangar is still mostly empty, if we do not get down there before all of the mechanics gets there, then there is no way you will be able to get her inside the Core Splendor!" He said loudly.

Then gave Shinn's resting place a hard kick, which almost send the dark haired teenage trembling to the floor, and he was only able to regain his balance, by grasping on to the table.

And after using a few minor seconds, to make absolutely certain that he and the chair wouldn't end up falling to the floor. He slowly lifted his tired gaze and looked up at his friend.

"I...I have no idea about what you are talking about Rey" the boy said, he seriously did not want to get his best friend and roommate involved in what he was planing on doing today.

And as much as he would truly like to find another solution, he just couldn't think of anything else, that could somehow save Stella's life, other then letting those stupid Earth Forces bastards have her back.

Not really something he was overly pleased about, it was after all those people who had been the cause of her pain in the first place.

He would frankly much rather go to their base, to show them a thing or two about what he thought, about their totally inhuman ways of treating Stella and all of those other Extendeds they had, it could not only be her that was suffering in this cruel manner.

Yet before he could disappear completely in to those dark murderous thoughts. He received a hard smack right at the back at his head, which immediately made him send Rey a deep displeased glare.

But just when he was about to ask what the heck that was for, his fellow pilot began talking to him in a low yet serious tone.

"Stop playing dumb you idiot, it's not like it's overly hard figuring out what you are up to. But what I really want to know is how exactly you are planing on getting the hangar door open, from inside the Core Splendor? Like it or not Shinn, you are going to need my help in this. So lets stop wasting anymore time discoursing this and get this crazy mission started!" He said loudly, while giving the boy a look at made it pretty clear that he wasn't going to change his mind about helping out.

Seeing what kind of expression Rey had on his face at the moment, was just about all that was needed to make Shinn realize that it was pretty much pointless arguing with him about this.

And knowing that he slowly shook his head while letting out a soft sigh. "So what exactly are suggesting we do Rey, I was just planing on getting her once I was sure that the doc and the nurse wasn't around. I frankly don't want to knock out more people then absolute necessary. I kinda doubt that the captain will be overly pleased, with what we are about to do" Shinn said, still somewhat unsure what punishment the two of them would get from this.

Hearing that the teenage wasn't overly keen on beating up his own fellow soldiers, made the blond man smile slightly.

"Well if that's really what you are worried about Shinn then now would definitely be the best time to smuggle her down to the hangar. Most of the crew is after all still fast asleep in their rooms, but you know just as well as me, that Aves likes to start early when there is a lot to do around the ship" Rey said, honestly wondering if the chief engineer was already down in the hangar.

Thinking briefly about that Shinn nodded slowly in understanding. It was no secret around the ship that Aves followed the old saying early to bed and early to rise.

So he could get as much work done as possible, there had actually been a few crew members, who had would complain about how much noise, the mechanics would make down in the hangar, in the early morning hours, when everybody else was still fast asleep.

Which meant that if he followed his usual schedule, he should already be down there right now. "Ok I get what you are saying Rey, we should hurry up and get going before Aves starts working on something that wakes up the entire ship" he said.

While wondering just how they could possibly get Stella off the ship. If every single crew member was down in the hangar, yelling at the mechanic for being disturbed in their sleep.

"Glad to see that we agree Shinn, you go get the girl while I'll take care of things down in the hangar. I'll make certain that hangar door is open, when you are ready to head out. And do be careful with her, we don't want her to get in an even worth condition, before we can bring her home" the blond teen said, while seriously hoping that he would not have to knock out to many mechanics.

Nodding a single time in agreement to that, Shinn got up from the seat where he immediately stretch both of his arms and back, in an attempt to get rid of some of the painful soreness he had gotten from spending the entire night in that chair.

"Ok Rey that does sound somewhat reasonable, even true being with the Earth Alliance is not what I would call home. But I guess that we don't have much choice in the matter, I just have to make certain that she stays alive through all of this!" The boy said determined.

And with that the two of them quickly made their way over to the door, each of them thinking hard, about what they where about to do.

Yet once they got out in to the halls, Shinn once more began talking to his friend. "I'll see you when I get back Rey, and thank you for everything" the dark haired kid said, in a grateful tone.

Smiling a brief second or two, at that before he got a much more serious look on his face. "Don't mention it, I'm just doing what I believe is right. I honestly dislike the idea of watching a person die without at least trying to do something to help out. But do promise me that you will be careful when dealing with the Earth Forces, they have shown more then a few times now, that they are willing to do just about anything to win this war!" He said.

Knowing that if Shinn did not come back from this, they would have to find another way to get rid of Kira Yamato, which could postpone the Ultimate Coordinator's death quite a bit, and that was not something Rey liked.

Not really having a whole lot of trouble, understanding what Rey meant by that.

It wasn't really all that hard to tell that the Earth Forces actions had been overly brutal since the start of the war. First they had stolen the three gundams from Armory One, then they had fired nuclear missiles only a day after declaring war.

In the young man's eyes, each and every one of them was either crazy or on the edge of being it.

And he frankly doubt quite a bit that there would ever come a point in time, where he could actually tell somebody that he understood some of the more insane things, the Earth Alliance did.

So while trying to figure out how crazy the Earth Forces was on a scale of one to ten, he turned and gave his blond friend a short yet firm nod. "Count on me Rey, I'll be sure to keep my eyes open around those bastards. But I really hope that I can avoid combat as long as I have Stella inside the cockpit. I can always beat the crap out of them once she is safe!" The boy said a bit louder then he had originally indented.

Taking a small glance back at him Rey told him one last thing before they went of in two different directions. "Just remember Shinn that if you do end up fighting them, there is no backup from the Minerva, which means that if you do run out of power there is no Deuterion beam to recharge the Impulse" he softly told the boy, before he continued onward towards the hangar.

Looking a bit after him, Shinn of course knew, that he was right about this.

If he could avoid fighting with anybody while this so called rescue mission was underway, then that would most definitely be the best choice under the circumstance. It wasn't like he could actually handle, a whole base full of enemies all on his own.

And with that decision made, he swiftly turned around on one foot, then hurried began making his way towards the place, where the medbay was located on the grey Zaft space ship.

Sincerely hoping that he would not have to hurt the doc or the nurse too badly, they where after all a part of the Minerva's crew. Even true he did blame them quite a bit for not being able to do anything to help out Stella.

If they had just been able to carry out their jobs, like they where suppose to.

Then none of this would have been necessary. So it was to say it honestly their fault, that he was forced to do this.

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It wasn't all that many minutes later when Shinn arrived at the medbay, where he instantly took a quick look around to make certain that there was nobody else there.

Fortunately much to his big relief, the only other person currently present in there, was the one he wanted to help out so badly. "Hmm it seems like this is going to be much easier then I thought" he mumbled softly under his breath, while he stepped over to the bed.

Where he looked down at the unbelievable pale girl, but just as he was about to reach down and pick her up, she turned her head a bit to the side and looked straight at him.

"Shin...n...you here to visit...so early?" She weakly asked him, sounding very much like she had trouble breathing even with the oxygen mask strapped over her nose and mouth.

Yet before he could give her some kind of reply, she slowly closed her eyes and once more lost consciousness, leaving Shinn to stand there watching her, as she got a somewhat pained expression on her face.

Which made it completely clear, that she was feeling even worth now, then the last time he visit her five hours ago, where he had 'borrowed' the medical report about her condition.

And even true she had a some point doing her stay on the ship regained her memories about him.

She still seemed highly confused about where she knew him from in the first place, which she had shown quite clearly by obviously, believing that the two of them was on the same side in the war.

There had even been a time where she had gone so far as to ask him, where Neo was and if it was all right if she talked a bit with him. And when he had told her that Neo wasn't there, she almost had another one of her panic attacks, which he had only been able to prevent by telling her that Neo was out on a long mission and that he would be back later.

Yet when she had woken up the second time that day, she had shown no signs of even remembering asking about that damn Neo bastard, she had pretty much been telling him the whole time, just how happy she was that she wasn't alone in there and that he was there with her.

And as pleasant as that conversation had been. She had no memory about it the next day, it was almost like she had next to no idea about anything that was going on around her, even if it was happening just beside her bed.

And just realizing that, was more then enough to make the deep dislike he felt towards the Earth Forces and that Neo bastard grow even larger. "Damn it all, I would most rather go there to tear that damn purple Windam apart, then turn that Neo guy in to a pancake" he whispered softly to himself, while dreaming a moment or two about what it would be like, to stomp the very life out of that stupid bastard.

He did however not get long to think about that, before Stella's soft weak voice interrupted his thought. "Shinn...Shinn...is Neo here?...I really want to see him and talk with...him" she said, while trying to look around the room to find the mask man.

Not overly pleased with the idea that she cared so much about one of the very people who actually had done this to her, the teenage slowly reached down and softly caressed her right cheek a couple of seconds.

"He is not here Stella, but I'll bring you to him so you can return back to the energetic girl you are suppose to be" he promised her reluctantly, while he carefully picked her and the cover up from the bed.

And when he was totally sure that he wouldn't drop her, he turned around and walked slowly over towards the exit of the room.

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At the same time down in the hangar, Rey looked down at Yolant who was laying unconscious by his feet.

"I'm sorry about this my friend" he said, then took a swift look around the hangar to make sure that there was nobody around, that had seen what he had just done to one of their own.

But as far as he could tell Yolant and himself where the only people down there right now. So after taking one last look at the young mechanic, he turned around and hurried made his way over to the emergency controls to the hangar door. Normally it would be Meyrin's job to open and close the hangar, but it could be done from down here too, incase they needed to evacuate the Minerva.

Yet before the blond man could get very far, a loud voice could heard shouting out through the hangar. "Yolant, what in Zaft's name happened to you?!" Aves deeply concerned voice, asked while he reach down to check if the boy had a pulse.

But as he was doing that he did not notice Rey tiptoeing slowly towards him from behind. "Ohh thank God he still has a pulse, but I wonder happe..." that was just about all he got out, before Rey slammed his right hand in to the side of his neck.

And as the chief engineer fell to the floor beside the other mechanic, Rey softly whispered out yet another small apology. Then rushed off full speed in the direction of the control panel, deeply hoping that nobody else would show up before he could get the hangar open.

He might be quite good at hand to hand combat, but there was simply no way, he could beat up the entire technical staff if they where all trying to restrain him. And if they did start a fight down there. It was highly unlikely that the rest of the ship's crew would stay silent. And he was already expecting a great deal of trouble, when he started messing around, with the hangar controls.

Yet he could always worry about that once he was sure that Shinn was safely away, after that he was planing on surrendering with out a fuss and go voluntarily down to the brig, and stay there without any kind of complain.

But as he was wonder racket this would make around the ship, he reached his destination and looked down at the great many buttons in front of him. But even true it did look kinda complicated, it wasn't really all that hard to figure out.

It was after all made so every crew member on the ship, could use it incase of an emergency.

"Hm all right then lets get this show on the road, I just hope that Shinn is ready in the Core Splendor, for once I do this every single alarm on the ship will start ringing like never before" he mumbled quietly while he started working on the controls.

Which meant that it only took a few brief moments before the hangar door began sliding open and all the alarms started howling loudly out through the ship, informing just about everybody on board, that something out of order was happening.

"There he goes! Now I just need to send him a little something, he can use to defend himself with, before I get company!" the blond man said.

Knowing that according standard producer, that it would only be a matter of a few minutes, before the hangar would be fill with heavy armed soldiers. That was more then ready to deal with whatever was going on down there.

And just as he activated the system to send out the more vital parts of the Impulse and the Force Silhouette. The door to the hangar flew open and in rushed a bunch of soldiers, that was each armed with a machine rifle.

But just happy to know that Shinn had gotten away. The blond pilot turned around and slowly looked each of them over, while he raised both of his arms up over his head, to show them that he wasn't going to resist.

And that of course meant, that it did not take very long before his hands was handcuffed securely behind his back, only to be roughly lead out of the hangar a second later by four of the black clad men, while the rest stayed behind to tend to Yolant and Aves.

Something which he was actually a bit happy about, seeing as he had not wanted to hurt any of the mechanics in the first place.

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At the same time up on the bridge.

Talia stepped inside and was just about to ask what was going on, when she noticed the Impulse up on the main screen.

And seeing as they where not under attack, the gundam had no real reason to be out there. "Meyrin establish a link with the Impulse immediately!" The woman order loudly, already planing on giving Shinn quite the earful for this.

Yet the red haired girl's response did not please her at all. "I already tried getting in contact with him captain. But from what I can tell from here he is jamming pretty much every single one of our signals Ma'am, so it's impossible to get in contact with him!" Meyrin said, while her hands flew as fast as possible over the many buttons in front of her.

Hearing that Talia again looked up at the Impulse just as it turned around and took of full speed in a southeast direction, and realizing that it wouldn't take long before the boy and the gundam was completely out of sight.

The woman had to make an extremely difficult choice in the matter of a few seconds. Should she order the crew to try and shoot him down or should she just let him leave the area.

"Damn that boy, get the Tristan ready and aim for the Silhouette pack. If we destroy that we should be able to prevent him from leaving!" The totally pissed of officer order in a cranky tone.

But before they could get even one shoot of the leader of the squadron that had been send to the hangar appeared on one of the smaller monitors. "I'm really sorry to disturb you captain, but I have a small message from Za Burrel. He says that Asuka will return here when he is done with his errand, it's up to you Ma'am if you believe that or not" the man said, then disappeared again.

Thinking briefly about what in the world could be so damn important that Shinn was willing to take it this far, yet it soon came to her that there was properly only one thing on the entire ship that could make the boy do this.

"Hurry get somebody down to the medbay and check-up on the Gaia's pilot!" She order loudly, even true she was almost totally sure that the girl was gone too along with the foolish boy and the gundam.

And once she again turned her attention back towards the main screen.

She instantly noticed that the Impulse gundam was nothing more then a tiny spot in the far distance. Which meant that there was just no way they could stop him from leaving now.

"That boy is in serious trouble once he gets back here!" The woman muttered angrily, then turned and hurried left the bridge.

Shinn might be gone for now. But Rey was still here, and he was definitely going to give her an explanation for this whole affair, that much was certain.

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Meanwhile in the Impulse.

Shinn slowly moved his left hand away from the controls, then reached down and gently brush back a few strands of her blond hair, while studying her lovely yet pale face.

"Now we just need to find that Earth Forces carrier or find somebody that can point us in the direction of that Neo bastard" he explained to the beautiful girl that was resting so calmly on his lap.

Just as he increase the gundam's speed, seriously hoping that they would be able to find that guy before the mobile suit ran out of power. Yet just as long as he didn't use any of the more draining weapons like the beam saber or rifle, then he sure that everything would be just find. And if he was just a bit lucky then he might be able to avoid getting spotted by any enemy units.

He frankly didn't want to waste any of the gundam's power by fighting a whole bunch of unnecessary battles. "Damn it, I really wish I knew where to start looking for that damn carrier, this is almost like looking for a needle in a haystack!" He growled unhappily.

But even true finding such a small object seemed somewhat impossible, Shinn was completely determined to find that stupid needle no matter what it took. Even if he actually had to search through one Earth Forces base after another.

Yet before he resort to something so utterly drastic, it was properly wise to take a look around Crete for that carrier. He was pretty certain that if he found that piece of crap, he would find that Neo guy too.

He did however not get very far before the alarm began sounding through the cockpit. "Ahhh man what now?" He asked, then saw about four Windams and a weird looking blue mobile armor coming steadily towards him.

"What the hell is that machine?" He asked.

While at the same time looking down at the controls to see if the Impulse's computer had anything about the strange armor. And it only took a few seconds before he knew the name of the mobile armor.

"Raider Full Spec, I did not think I would run in to something like that!" The boy said, while trying to determined what kind of weapons that thing had, unfortunately it was kinda hard to tell from this distances.

Yet one thing that was completely obvious was that the five machines was planing on fighting him. But just as he took aim and was about to open fire on the closed Windam, somebody began talking to him over the radio in a loud highly demanding tone.

"Attention Zaft pilot, stop your approach at once, then maybe we will let you live!" The obvious leader of the bunch said.

Which was enough to make the four morons follows behind him let out a few minor laughs, which made it pretty clear that they where planing on killing him no matter what he did.

So not wanting to waste anymore time on these guys then he had to, Shinn immediately gave them a response. "Hah yeah right! Like bunch of worthless idiots could ever beat me. Why don't you go back home and hide under your beds fools!" The dark haired boy said, then swiftly took aim and fired a single well place shot directly in to the cockpit of one of the Windams.

Seeing their friend getting killed like that the four other pilots instantly started firing at the Impulse. "You just don't know who it is you are messing with you tiny snotty brat!" The leader yelled, then fired a couple of missiles after him.

But before any of the warheads could get anywhere near the Impulse, Shinn used the machine guns in the chest to shoot them down, then hurried throw himself to the side and fired the beam in to the side of another one of the Windams.

"I honestly don't give a rat's ass about who I'm messing with. Each and every one of you is as pathetic as one can be!" Shinn tolled them, while quickly maneuvering the gundam up over the next few beams that was heading for him, while at the same time flying full speed directly towards the very machine that was responsible for the attack.

And just when it fired a few more beams, he rolled a single time around himself then hammered the right foot straight in to the left side of the Windam's head. Sending the white Earth Forces machine falling backwards down towards the deep blue sea, but just when it seemed like the mobile suit was going to hit the water, the pissed of boy fired both the machine guns down at it, making it blow up a half meter above the ocean.

Once that was over and done with, he slowly turned and looked back at the last two mobile suits. "Now then, why don't you fools get lost and save all of us a whole load full of trouble?" Shinn asked, while carefully studying the blue gundam, trying to figure out what kind of weapons it carried.

"There is no way I'll ever admit defeat to a Coordinator, you are going to die by my hands you bastard!" The piloted inside the Raider Full Spec shouted as a loud as he possible could, then rush full speed forward where it instantly began firing it's many machine guns.

Quickly evading away from the attacks, Shinn fired a few shoots back at the other gundam, while yelling out a few more words to the Blue Cosmos supporter.

"Well if that's how you feel then it's you funeral!" He yelled back, then took a short glance down, at Stella that fortunately was still out, even with everything that was going on around her.

And once he was sure that she was all right. He once more fired a few beams after the blue war machine, that evade his attacks by transforming over in to it's mobile armor mode.

"You will never win Coordinator!" The man shouted, as he once more began shooting after the Zaft gundam.

Not that Shinn had much trouble getting past the attacks and firing a couple of beams back after the extremely fast mobile armor.

"Ahhhh shut up already, why don't you just go to hell and tell Muruta Azrael what a loser he is!" Shinn yelled, back seriously starting to hate this guy, especially when he heard his next words.

"Don't you dare talk about Lord Azrael like that, he was a truly great man, that was trying to make the world right. By destroying all of you damn Coordinators!" The Raider Full Spec pilot yelled, not even close to realize how dangerous this subject was.

Shinn might be blaming Cagalli Yula Athha and her father for his families death.

But that definitely did not mean, that he didn't blame the Earth Alliance and Muruta Azrael for invading Orb in the first place.

And just hearing this guy praise the dead terrorist leader like this, was more then enough to make Shinn's blood boil. "You frankly should consider getting your empty head examined by a professional. It's obvious that there is something wrong up there!" The angry teenage told the man, while destroying the last of the Windams with a combined attack from the machine guns and the rifle.

After that he took another look down at Stella, where he noticed that she looked slightly more pale now then before. Which meant that he really had to cut this battle short, even true he honestly wanted to teach this bastard the biggest lesson in history.

But it was much more important that he made sure that Stella was all right. If she went and died on him, while he was busy fighting this shortsighted fool, there was just no way he would ever be able to forgive himself.

And with that in mind he hurried took aim and fired a couple of beams straight towards the Raider Full Spec, which hurried roll over the attacks then once more fired it's many machines guns after him.

Yet as they where dog fighting like that, Shinn came to the realization that this battle could drag on for quite a long time. Simply because the other mobile suit was that much faster then the Impulse.

"Damn it, I have to find away to slow him down and quickly" he muttered, while using the shield to counter to other mobile suit's massive attack, then watched just as the other machine transformed once again, which made him realize that the Raider Full Spec did have one pretty obvious weakness.

If he could somehow destroy the Guul like thing it was riding on. It should be impossible for the blue highly irritating gundam to remain airborne and keep up with him and the Impulse.

But knowing the weakness and actually destroying it was two completely different things. So he decided that the best thing for him to do right now was to try and get this guy to make some kind of mistake he could use to take out the 'Guul' or whatever it was call.

And with that in mind.

His huge determination to beat this guy, made him go over in to seed mode, where he hurried took aim and fired two shots down after the blue mobile suit, that easily avoided them, by flying down underneath the beams.

"Why don't you just surrender Coordinator, if you do that, your death will be quick and painless!" The man promised, even true it was pretty clear that he was lying through his teeth right now.

Not that Shinn cared much about that at the moment, the only thing he wanted to do was to send this crackpot down to his mentor in hell. "Yawn, so tired and bored over here, almost ready to go to sleep!" Shinn said.

Seriously hoping that this would be enough to provoke the guy in to making a mistake. And fortunately the guy was so pissed off right now, that he wasn't really paying attention to what was going on around him.

"How dare you speak to me like that!?" The man yelled, obviously deeply displeased about what Shinn had just said to him, and to add just a bit more fuel to the fire Shinn let out a loud snoring sound.

Which immediately made the Blue Cosmos supporter charge forward as fast as possible, all of the Raider Full Spec's weapons blazing as the completely hysterical fool started shooting at him.

Yet before any of the attacks could hit the Impulse, Shinn reduced the Strike-like gundam's speed.

So he literally dropped down underneath, the Earth Forces mobile suit.

Where he immediately fired three beams directly up in to the 'Guul' making it blow up, and sending the sad remains of the Raider Full Spec crashing violently in to the sea.

Now with the left leg gone, and with the right one heavily damage by the assault. "Now, rot in hell you bastard!" He said, then started firing one beam after another at the Raider Full Spec, making absolutely certain that the guy had no time to say anything else to him.

And once he witnessed the blue mobile suit blow up, he hurried turned around and continued onwards towards Crete.

To be continued.

Just so we are clear guys I do not know if the Raider Full Spec is really a gundam or not. But in this story, it is.

It's been awhile since I have done this. But I would like to thank you all for reading and reviewing. Please do not forget review this chapter, once you are done reading it.

Now I'll see all of you next year. Have a merry christmas and happy new year.


	47. Chapter 47

Hey guys I'm back. I hope all of you got in to the new year ok.

Chapter 47

Neo Roanoke was in his room slowly eating his breakfast.

Yet if somebody had actually been able to see his face, they would easily have been able to tell that he wasn't really feeling all that well. He was tired from the lack of sleep, and he honestly felt like going to the nearest bathroom and just throw up everything he had eaten the last few minutes.

The reason for his so called sickness was simply because every time he closed his eyes, or didn't keep himself occupied with something.

All those people which he had seen for the first time only a couple of days ago, when he had hit his head kept on hunting him. And no matter how hard he tried to get them out of his mind, they would always be there either looking at him or smiling at him.

Yet the worth part about it all was that he felt like he was suppose to be with them and help them out, like each and every one of them where all people that he loved and cared about.

And the fact that he had no idea about why his feeling for them where so strong, almost made the man feel like he was going completely out of his mind, he just didn't understand why a bunch of people he didn't know, where so important to him.

"Damn it, it's times like these, that I kinda wish that it was allowed to have alcohol on a military vessel" the mask man muttered annoyed, while taking a small sip from the glass of orange juice, standing on his table.

Yet the sweet beverage did nothing to help on his nauseousness, if anything it actually made him feel even worse then before. It was kinda like his mind and body was screaming and telling him to remember all of those strange people.

He did however not get long to think about that before he once more saw the brown haired woman, coming slowly towards him. And even true it was only for a brief moment, he kinda felt like she was reaching out to him.

Which almost made him grasp out after her hand, but before he could actually do that he forced his hand back on the table, and shook his head as hard as possible to try and get the woman out of his mind again.

For some reason she was always the one that seemed to appear the most. It was kinda like her image alone was actually waiting for him to figure out, who she and all the others where.

And even true it was simply impossible for him to deny his deep attraction to the woman. It was frankly starting to frustrate him more and more that it always seemed like she was there keeping an eye on him, just feeling her presence at the back of his mind made it incredibly hard for the deeply puzzled man to concentrate properly on his job, or anything else for that matter.

"Man the next time I got a day off. I'm going to do some serious bar-hopping!" The mask man promised himself.

Frankly hoping that an entire load full of alcohol, would be enough to get his mind back on track.

Yet when he saw that brown haired teenage and a man in a orange boiler suit, he again realized that getting these images out of his head wasn't going to be as easy as that, they really did seem determined to be there no matter what.

It was very much starting to seem like, that the only way for him to return to normal was to somehow figure out who these people were. And why exactly they where all so important to him.

Unfortunately he was pretty low on clues about them.

Seeing as the only way he really knew them was from whenever they appeared in his mind, which was definitely not enough for him to actually find out their names or anything else overly vital.

Yet as all of those thoughts was going through his confused head. The intercom on his desk suddenly began ringing loudly. Which was a pretty obvious sign that there was somebody on the ship, that wanted to speak with him.

He just hoped, that it was something that could be over and done with in a jiffy. He really didn't feel like having a long conversation with anybody right now, he would much rather be by himself. So he could meditate and at least try to find some meaning to all of this highly puzzled thoughts.

"Well knowing my luck it's properly something about we being under attack. Perhaps the Archangel and the Minerva have combined forces, to take us out" the mask man joked.

Then slowly reached out after the intercom and pressed down on the button that enabled him to talk with the person on the other end of the line.

Seriously hoping that it was nothing more, then a status report about the repairs on the mobile suits, or something else which did not require that he left the room, with his head so utterly messed up, it didn't take much for him to get a headache, not that he didn't already had one.

So while still somewhat annoyed by the interruption, he began talking calmly in to the intercom. "What is it? I'm really busy at the moment, so would you please make it snappy" he ordered, then waited a few seconds for the person at the other end, to give him a response.

"I'm sorry for disturbing you sir. But a few moments ago, we detected a single enemy mobile suit, heading in our direction. And from what we are able to tell it's most likely the Impulse!" A female crew member told him in a serious voice.

Somewhat taken back by those news, the mask man leaned slowly backwards in his chair, where he rubbed his chin in a thoughtful manner. "It's coming here all on it's own?" He asked, seriously wondering just what exactly the pilot of the Strike-like gundam could be up to.

"Yes sir, but it doesn't really seem to be all that hostile. It's been trying to get in contact with us, ever since it first show up" the woman explained loudly, sounding quite concerned about the whole affair.

Hearing that, Neo blinked a few times under his mask. "Hmm that's interesting. Yet I kinda doubt that he is here to desert over to our side, so it will definitely be best that you go over to level two battle station, and get ready to engage him, if he is here looking for blood" the blond man said.

Then told the woman, that he would be up there shortly, and that the bridge should make sure, that his Windam was ready to launch incase he got a need for it.

After that he disconnect the communication to the bridge, before the woman had the necessary time to say anything back. "Well here we go again. If it's not one problem it's another" he sighed annoyed, then stood up from his seat and began making his way over to the door.

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It was about two or three minutes later, when Neo stepped on to the bridge.

"Ok boys and girls give me a status report, is our unwanted visitor still out there?" The mask man asked.

Then dropped down in his usual chair, where he instantly looked up at the main screen. That was showing a clear image of the highly powerful Zaft mobile suit, which was equipped with it's version of the old Aile Striker pack, and obviously approaching the John Paul Jones quite hastily.

Taking a small glance over at him, the exact same woman he had talked with only a few moments ago over the intercom. Began telling him what little information they had about the Impulse gundam's present, in the area.

"Well you see sir, since the gundam first showed up on our radar it hasn't change curse even once. And we have already received a minor bunch of request to open a line of communication. Whoever is piloting that mobile suit does seem to be quite eager to talk with us!" The black short haired woman said, as she along with the rest of the crew waited to hear, what he had to say about all of this.

Thinking briefly about what the female crew member had just told him. Neo once again rubbed his chin in a thoughtful fashion. "Hmm all right put him through, I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm actually a bit curious about what he wants. Yet if it does turn out that the pilot is a total crackpot, that's only here to demand our immediate surrender then just cut him off. I'm not really in the mood to deal with a crazy person right now" the blond man said.

Then used the next couple of seconds to softly drum the armrest of his chair, while he waited patiently for the crew to carry out his order.

Which of course meant, that it did not take very long before they all heard the pilot's voice talking loudly to them or more rather to him. "Attention Neo Roanoke. I'm here to deliver Stella back to you, so she can get the necessary treatment she needs. If you want to save her life, please meet me on the small island about three miles away from your present location!" The boy said, not doing much to hide the deep anger and hate he felt towards them all.

Yet before Neo could give the pilot's request all that much through, he once more began talking to him.

"I have already seen more then enough off how you bast...people treat your own. But as far as I know, Stella has already done a lot for the Earth Forces. Both when she stole the Gaia gundam and using it against Zaft for such a long period of time, so don't you think she deserve your help" the kid said, obviously more then a little pissed off at the moment.

After those words was said the communication between the ship and the gundam was disconnect, just as they all saw the powerful mobile suit change direction up on the screen, obviously heading towards the very island the pilot had request to meet Neo at.

Yet even true Neo could easily tell that the rest of the crew up there was somewhat taken back at what the boy had asked of him. He could not help but smile slightly, at the whole thing, seeing as it was pretty easy to figure out why the boy was doing this.

"Hmm well ain't that something, it would very much seem like our young enemy pilot has a crush on Stella. Yet like the old saying goes, love can be blind!" The blond man said, with more then a little amusement in his tone. It wasn't really all that comment that two people on different sides in a war would actually develop feelings for one about.

And it frankly made him wonder how Stella felt about the whole thing. But there was properly only one way to figure that out, and that was by meeting with the crazy kid.

So even true he knew that this could actually be some kind of trap to get him alone, he was pretty quick to make up his mind about the whole matter. "Ok people get my Windam ready, apparently I have an appointment with a enemy pilot. Beside I really could use some fresh air!" The man said, still somewhat annoyed that he just weren't able to get rid of his damn headache.

Hearing him say that, just about everybody up there turned and looked over at him with a slightly shocked expression on their faces. "Are you certain that this is wise sir, this entire thing might just be some kind of daring scheme, he has construct to get a chance to kill you" the war ship's new second in-command said, clearly not all that happy about the situation.

Taking a small glance over at the man. Neo could not help but smile a bit, he liked this guy much better then the previous second in-command. He was just that much easier to get along with, then the last bastard that had lose the Gaia and Stella in the first place.

"I don't think you have to worry commander, it's not like I'm going out there completely unarmed" he said calmly, then gave the handgun which was hidden away inside his coat a light slap, to show that it was there.

After that, he once more began talking in a somewhat reasonable tone. "Beside if he has traveled all the way here on his own. I kinda doubt that his mobile suit has all that much power left. So if he really do want to fight I'm pretty sure that I'll be able to handle him until you guys can send reinforcements, just be sure that Sting stays here after what the Freedom did to it, the Chaos is far from ready for combat yet!" The blond man said.

Knowing that they had yet to remove the whole obsession with revenge, from the green haired man's mind. He was still completely and utterly possessed with the idea of destroying the Impulse gundam, for murdering Auel in the battle at Crete.

And if Stella really was inside the Impulse, there was simply no way they could allow Sting to interfere in this little exchange, it would after all be best if they could get the girl back alive without anything else to rattle her up, this whole thing about being capture definitely had been a traumatizing experiences for the young blond haired woman, and it was most likely best to remove those memories immediately after she got back on board the ship.

He did however only get a few seconds to consider that, before the second in-command's voice, brought him back out of his thoughts. "We'll be absolutely certain to follow your orders as precisely as possible. But please do be careful out there sir, we only have a few mobile suits to send out as backup if this really is some kind of trap!" The man said loudly.

Hearing that Neo nodded a single time in understanding. "All right commander, just be sure to keep your eyes open for anything unusual, this might just be some sort of diversion, and we do not want to be taken by surprise" the mask man said.

Knowing that there was a small chance, that there might be a bunch of Vosgulov class and a few other Zaft war ships nearby.

And they where in no condition to do battle with anybody right now, certainly not a larger fleet of ships.

So if there was more then just the Impulse gundam out there, it was definitely best to retreat from the area as quickly as possible. He really wasn't a big fan of fighting a losing battle, if it could somehow be avoided.

And while he was still thinking about that. He left the bridge without saying anything else.

Heading for the hangar with loud firm steps, which made it pretty obvious for all who past him, that he was determined to get this over and done with in a hurry.

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Meanwhile out in the Impulse.

Shinn was starting to get a bit worried about this whole thing.

He had yet to see any signs of that highly annoying purple Windam.

And he was seriously begin to wonder just what exactly the weird bastard could be up to, as much as he hated to admit it, there was no way he would be able to last all that long, should this whole thing suddenly turn ugly.

His gundam was already extremely low on power after his encounter with that one Raider Full Spec gundam, so if that Neo was planing on meeting him with a whole bunch of mobile suits. There was no way he would be able to defeat them all, before the gundam lost the rest of it's power.

And if that where to happen, he would just have to get out of there in a hurry, before any of the enemy machines could somehow take him and Stella out.

Yet as he was thinking about that, he noticed a single target on the scanner heading hastily towards his location. Which immediately made him lift up the rifle and take a look at the approaching mobile suit.

And once he realized that it was the very machine he was waiting for. He hurried fought down the deep temptation, that told him to pull the trigger and free the world from the very bastard, who he blame for the large amount of pain Stella had gone through.

But just as he was about to make his fantasy, about killing this man a reality.

The person he was trying so desperately to save let out a small yet painful moan.

Which pretty much instantly, made him look down at her and remove his hand from the controls, before he could do something that would properly cost, the innocent girl he cared so much about, her life.

"Damn you! Just you wait, someday I'll make certain that you can never hurt anybody ever again" Shinn promised, seriously hoping that it would not be necessary for him to spend a lot of time talking with this guy.

Just the thought of actually having a nice friendly conversation with this bastard, was almost enough to make him want to throw up.

Yet as the purple Windam continued getting close and close to their location, he moved the mobile suit around a bit in a attempt to make the Impulse look as treating and dangerous as possible, hoping to show this guy that if he wanted to fight he was more then ready for it.

Unfortunately it didn't really seem like the bastard paid all that much attention to his unfriendly gesture.

If anything the scrap pile of a Windam, actually increased it's speed when it saw him move around in such a manner, which made it completely clear to him, that there was simply no way, he could trick this guy in to believing that the Impulse was still hundred percent ready to do battle with him.

But while he sat there mumbling out a few minor courses about that. The annoying Windam landed about fifty feet away from him, which wasn't really all that far when one thought about how huge a mobile suit's steps where.

And even true Shinn would honestly have liked to glare at the other machine, for at least a few seconds. He did not get the time for that before the man started talking to him in a much more calm tone, then Shinn liked.

It was almost like this moron didn't care one bit about, the two of them being enemies. And that they had already tried to kill each other more then a few times in the past.

"So Zaft pilot how do you suggest we handle this? Are you going to throw her out of the cockpit to me, or do you have some other bright idea?" Neo asked, trying his best to sound like he was highly bored with the whole thing, and just wanted to return back to the ship as fast as possible.

Yet the only reason why he was talking like this was simply to provoke the other pilot, and to see how he was going to react to his bulling.

But apparently the boy was quite determined to remain calm through this whole ordeal.

"We'll step out of our machines at exactly the same time, and meet midway between them, and no gun pulling or anything else like that. Neither one of us wants Stella to get hurt right?" Shinn asked, not bothering to hide the deep hatred in his voice.

Thinking briefly about the teen's suggestion, Neo smiled a bit to himself, as he gave the boy a reply. "All right that does sound reasonable kid. I'll leave my gun behind if you do the same!" The blond mask man promised, as he pulled his gun out of his inner pocket and place it on the dashboard where he could easily get his hands on it, should the boy start shooting at him.

Not totally sure he really believed that this guy was going to do what he was saying. The Zaft pilot was a bit more hesitant and suspicious about the idea of leaving his weapon behind.

But seeing as he would be needing both of his hands to carry Stella, the small weapon wouldn't really be of much use to him. "Ahh damn it. I guess it's best just to get this over and done with without at least trying to blow the head of this bastard!" The boy said to himself, not realizing that the so called bastard, could hear everything he was saying, seeing as the radio was still turned on.

Not that Shinn cared all that much about that, he just wanted to make sure that Stella was safe and that this whole exchange didn't turn in to a battlefield, so while still somewhat unsure about this, he removed his gun and place it on the seat.

After doing that he looked down at Stella's lovely face, seriously more then a little worried that this was going to be the last time he would ever see her. But there was simply no way around it, if she stayed together with him, she was going to die very soon.

And with those negative thoughts rummaging hastily through his mind.

He slowly reached out and got the cockpit open just as the purple Windam did the same. "Here we go Stella! Soon you will be back with Neo and he will make you feel better!" He softly told the girl.

And even true he honestly had a whole bunch of other things he would truly like to tell her. He kept his mouth firmly shut as he carefully began manouevring the blond girl out the tight cockpit.

Being extremely careful not to knock her head against anything in there.

He really didn't want to put her in an even worse condition, then she was already. Especially not when the very person, he was asking to help her, could see just about everything he was doing.

Once outside of the Impulse.

Shinn instantly took notice of the blond man standing not far away from the left foot of the Windam. Yet what really caught his attention was the ugly looking mask, he was wearing.

There was simply no way he could deny that with all of the hate he was feeling towards this man, that he hadn't been at least somewhat curious about, what he looked liked, unfortunately with that stupid mask on, it was pretty much impossible to tell.

Yet as he stood there glaring at the masking wearing bastard that he had fought against so many time now, the blond man took a single step towards him, which made him tense up slightly.

This was after all a very dangerous predicament for him, if this bastard really was planing on killing him, there wasn't really a whole lot he could do about it with Stella in his arms.

Actually the only option he had to defend himself should this guy suddenly pull out a gun and start shooting at him, was to use Stella as a shield. And there was just no way in hell he was ever going to do that, to tell the truth he would much rather die then see her get hurt.

He did however not get long to worry about it all, before the man's next few words brought him out of his thoughts. "So you really did have her in there, I was having my doubts that you where telling the truth" Neo said, as both of his eyes slowly ran over the unconscious girl in the Zaft pilot's arms. It wasn't really difficult to tell that she was in dire need, of the usual treatment they gave the Extendeds.

Which meant that it was definitely best, to get her back to the John Paul Jones in a hurry. "Hand her over to me, she needs to be treated as quickly as possible!" Neo said, then took two more steps towards the boy.

But before he could get very far he saw the Zaft kid shook his head a few times.

"Not before you promise me, that she will never have to fight ever again. I don't ever want to see her in this kind of condition again. She doesn't deserve to be treat in such a inhuman way. She deserve a normal life without war, and you are going to give it to her Neo" Shinn demand in a highly treating tone, while glaring hatefully at the mask man.

Slightly taken back by the gundam pilot's demands, Neo slowly raise his left eyebrow underneath the mask, while thinking hard about what the boy was telling him to do.

And even true he would honestly like to tell the boy that she was never going to get in to a mobile suit ever again. He knew that there was simply no way Lord Djibril and the other Logos leaders was ever let something useful go to waste.

Yet he realized that if he did not tell the boy what he wanted to hear, the blond woman was going to die very soon. And that meant that the only choice he had was to lie to the Zaft pilot, even true he was honestly more then a little against it.

He really didn't like breaking his promise, but he would rather do that, then watch as she slowly died in that brat's arms. "All right kid, you got a deal. I'll make certain that she will never have to fight again!" He said loudly.

While looking straight in to the Zaft pilot's red eyes, where he could easily tell that the kid was still having some very serious doubts about all of this, not that anybody could really blame the young Coordinator for that. So while still standing there watching him, the mask man decided to keep his mouth firmly shut, until the brat could make up his mind about, what to do.

Of course not completely sure he should trust this man's words.

Shinn looked first down at Stella, that was resting somewhat calmly in his arms, then back over at the mask man, who was behaving more then a bit like he didn't have a care in the world, which served to piss Shinn of a tiny bit.

Yet as quickly as those angry feelings had appeared the instantly left him, when he once more turned his gaze back towards the blond girl. "All right, I guess that I got no other choice but to trust you. But if you are lying to me, you can be damn sure that I'll send you on a one way trip to hell!" He promised the man, before he slowly began making his way over to him.

Not having a whole lot of trouble telling just how serious the boy, was about that promise. Neo nodded a single time in understanding.

"Well seeing as you obviously hate me quite a bit boy, I kinda doubt that you are just going to ignore me the next time we meet. So lets just skip past the pleasantries and move on with this ordeal, that way neither of us will have to look at each other anymore then necessary" Neo said, as the two men slowly continued approaching one another.

And it was only when they where about two feet apart that they stopped, where they glare at each other for a second or two, until Shinn slowly moved his eyes back down at Stella.

"Now Stella, it wouldn't be very long now, before you are back to your normal self again" he softly whispered to her, then slowly leaned down and plant a light kiss on her left cheek.

And while still watching her face he carefully handed her over to the blond man, who by now was fighting the temptation not to give a few witty comments to what he had witness.

He might been having his suspicion about why the boy was trying so hard to help her out. Yet seeing him kiss her like that, was pretty much all he needed to tell, that he had been right about the crush thing all along.

So after brushing away a few strands of hair from her forehead, the mask man once more looked back at the Zaft pilot.

"I'll take here back to the ship now, do me a favor and say hello to white baldy and all of you other merry friends, once you get back to the Minerva" Neo said with a slightly wicked grin on his face.

And without waiting for a response he turned around and began making his way back to his purple mobile suit. Already knowing that the teen would most likely be in a great deal of trouble, once he got back to the Zaft space ship.

Wondering a short moment or two who the heck white baldy was, the pilot of the Impulse continued watching the mask man, until he saw that he was getting ready to get back up in the Windam.

And not wanting to stand around down there like a statue while that idiotic bastard was only a few feet away from him, in a mobile suit.

Shinn hurried shook away the man's last few words and began making his way back to the Impulse.

He did however not get very far before he turned and took one last look after Stella and the mask man. "Please take good care of her!" He said loudly trying his best to keep back the many tears that was treating to leave his eyes, he definitely didn't want this Neo fellow seeing him cry like a small child who had just been scold by it's parents.

Yet not all that surprising, the mask man didn't give him a reply. He just continued onwards towards his mobile suit, which was placed in such a manner that he could use the left arm to get up to the cockpit.

And realizing that the bastard had nothing else to say.

The depressed dark haired teenage ran the rest of the way over to the gundam, frankly hoping that he could get out of range before the Impulse would lose what little power it had left.

It wasn't that many minutes after that before both of the quick flying mobile suit sprang back to life.

And once both of them stood up straight, they just stared at each other for an unknown number of seconds until the purple Windam turned around and took off in the same direction, it had appeared from not long ago.

Somewhat taken back that this guy was just going to let him leave without a fuss, Shinn reached up and scratch his hair in a thoughtful manner. "Hmm he was a pretty weird guy. I seriously didn't think that anybody from the Earth Forces could behave so 'friendly' while talking with a Coordinator. Especially not after the last lunatic I ran in to" he mumbled softly to himself, while thinking about how crazy the guy piloting the Raider Full Spec had been.

Yet once the damn Windam was completely out of sight, he decided to return to the Minerva in a hurry before the captain declared him MIA or even KIA. And with that in mind, he got the gundam back up in to the air, and started the long journey back to the grey war ship.

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It was a little over an hour later when Shinn and the Impulse enter the Minerva's hangar.

Where not surprisingly there was a whole squadron of well armed man waiting for him to get out of the gundam.

And even true he came out of the mobile suit with both hands up, it took least then a second for two of the men to throw him on the floor while a third handcuffs both of his arms behind his back.

"Oww! Take it easy I'm not resisting" He complained, while he was roughly pull back up again by the two men holding his arms. It actually hurt quite a bit the way they had thrown him on the floor and how they had place the handcuffs on him, it almost seemed like they where ready to break both of his arms should he do any kind of resistance.

But his minor complaining pretty much fell on deaf ears, while the same two men who had hold his arms began dragging him out of the hangar. They did however not get him very far, before the leader of the group said a few somewhat mean spirited things back to him.

"Neither did chief engineer Aves or mechanic Yolant when your blond buddy knocked them out!" The black dressed man said, while looking at the teen with a angry look in both of his eyes. If there was one thing he didn't like, it was traitors, and people who would hurt the once they where fighting along side. And it did bring the big man a bit of satisfaction when he saw the guilty look in the brat's eyes.

And knowing that the boy's conscience was getting to him right now, made him smile slightly as he gave the two soldiers holding on to the overly spoil brat a signal to take him away from there.

Which they immediately did without question.

Yet as they approached the exit of the hangar, Shinn noticed the two former members of the Le Creuset team watching him. Each with a disappointed expression on their faces, and the way Athrun slowly shook his head in a somewhat disapproved manner did piss him off slightly.

But just as he was about to open his mouth and tell the blue haired man to shut up and mind his own business. His common sense quickly remained him that it might be more then just Athrun that shook his head in disapproval over what he had done.

So in the end he decide to keep his mouth shut before the FAITH member gave him a smack or two for what he had done.

Yet what he didn't know was that Athrun didn't think it was his responsibility to punish Shinn for what he had done. In his eyes that task was better left to the captain of the Minerva, and nobody else. But that most definitely didn't mean he thought what Shinn had done was all right, far from it actually.

And once Shinn was dragged out of sight, Athrun turned and looked over at Nicol to see his reaction to all of this. But the GOUF pilot just stood there quietly with a far away look on his face.

"I know better then most what it is like to want to protect one you care about, but I really do hope that Shinn knows the consequences of his action. This could mean that we would have to fight that girl again, and maybe even kill her. Yet if that's the case, he got nobody else other then himself to blame" Nicol said, as he once more wondered what had been going through the younger teen's head, when he had made the decision to do this.

Not really needing a whole lot of time to think about what Nicol had just said, the young Zala nodded a few times in agreement. "Yeah an outcome like that definitely is a possibility, we should make sure to mention that to him when the captain is done questioning him" Athrun said, while thinking about how large a panic the Impulse pilot had made on the ship, when he ran off with that girl.

Taking a small glance over at his friend, Nicol knew that Athrun was right. The last member of the Asuka family definitely needed to be told a few times, that what he had done was wrong, no matter how good his intention had been.

But knowing that Athrun already agreed with him on that. Nicol decide that he did not want to start a longer discussion about it.

He really wanted to get out of there and back to his temporary room and see how Luna was doing. She had been absolutely pissed, when she had been woken by the ship's alarms so early in the morning.

And when she had heard it was Shinn who was the cost of it. She had immediately promised, to give the gundam pilot a overly hard knock on the head, the next time she saw him.

So while still smiling slightly at that, he again turned his brown gazes over at Athrun. "I better get going now, it's been a pretty hectic day with everything that has been going on. And I for one would really mind sitting down a bit and just relax. So I'll talk with you later Athrun" the green haired teenage said in a friendly tone, before he turned around and slowly walked out of the hangar.

"All right see you Nicol!" Athrun said back, while looking after his old friend until he was out of sight, and once he was gone the young Zala thought a moment or two about what he was suppose to do now, and it only took him a few seconds to decide what he wanted to do now.

And with that in mind he too stepped out of the ship's hangar and began making his way back to his room. Determined to look to the rest of the video footages, which he had copied down from Rey's ZAKU.

Up until now most of the footages had shown the Freedom gundam doing battle at either Alaska or Jachin Due, and a few other battles which Zaft had been involved in two years ago.

But even true Athrun had seen about half of the footages already he still wasn't able to figure out why Rey was so interested in them in the first place, the only thing he knew for sure was that it had something to do with Rau Le Creuset or the Providence.

Seeing as every single video ended with a picture of the madman's mobile suit.

That one the other hand just serve to puzzle Athrun even more as he was now starting to wonder just what kind of connection Rey had with his former and long dead commander.

Maybe the whole thing with gathering all of those footages of the Freedom was some kind of quest for revenge. Perhaps Rey was actually using all of those videos to try and study the Freedom and Kira's fighting style.

But as logical as that sounded in Athrun's mind. He still had no definite proof that revenge, was the reason why for Rey's extremely high interest, in his best friend's mobile suit.

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At the same time down in the brig.

Talia was looking at the Impulse pilot with a deeply angry look on her face.

"Leaving the ship without permission, thief of military hardware and releasing a prisoner! All of these charges is quite serious Shinn. And they will most likely end with either a long time down here, or a military execution!" She told him, hoping that her last words, would make him look away from the floor and up at her.

Yet much to her minor annoyance he kept on watching the floor like it was the most interesting thing ever, which made the brown haired woman narrow her eyes more then a little bit, as she again start speaking to the stubborn boy.

"But what I really want to know is why? Why did you do all of this Shinn? You should already know, that freeing a enemy prisoner is an act that will get you severely punish!" She said loudly.

While thinking about just how much trouble the boy was in. She might find his at times overall stubborn attitude very frustrating. But she would honestly preferred not to see the boy get executed.

Unfortunately it was not up to her to decide what kind of punishment he and Rey where suppose to receive. The only once that could do that was Gilbert and the rest of the Zaft Council.

She did however not get a whole lot of time to think about that, before Shinn slowly turned his attention away from the floor and over at her.

"If we hadn't helped her, she would have die captain. But you already knew that" he said in a far away tone, that Talia could honestly say that she had never heard him use before.

Thinking briefly about his words, the frustrated woman finally let out a deep breath, which was actually powerful enough to make the hairs on her forehead fly around a bit.

"Ok it was as I thought, the reason why you did this was to save your crush. I just hope that you realize Shinn, that you might have to die in her place now!" She said then turned around and left the brig with loud steps, before the dark haired teenage had the necessary time to come up with some sort of reply.

Once gone Shinn slowly laid down on the somewhat uncomfortable bed in there, and looked straight up at the ceiling. "Damn what are totally lousy day, I actually can not believe some of the things I went through. I really hope I wouldn't have a day like this again anytime soon" the completely worn out teenage said, while briefly going over some of the things, that had happened today. Like his fight with the Raider Full Spec, and giving Stella back to that Neo guy.

He did however not get a whole lot of time to think about it, before Rey's voice brought him back to reality.

"Well look at it on the bright side, at least now we'll have a lot of time to rest and relax. It's not like we got much else to do while we are stuck in here!" The blond man said, sounding more then a bit, like he was bore with the whole thing.

Knowing that Rey was right about that.

Shinn let out a long sigh while he said one last thing before he slowly drifted of to sleep. "That's not really what I consider as cheerful news Rey, there is just no telling how long we are going to be in here..."

With that said it did not take long before he was making his way to dreamland, while Rey stayed awake a few seconds longer, just thinking about what his friend had said to him.

He was definitely right about this, it wasn't really all that great being in here.

And even true he was pretty confident that Gil would get them out of their without a scratch. He realized that it could properly take a few days for him to convince the rest of the Council, that Shinn and him where still loyal Zaft soldiers.

To be continued.


	48. Chapter 48

Hey guys I'm sorry for the long delay with this chapter.

I had a few personal problems I need to deal with. Fortunately they are all resolved now, so I should be updating again like I usually do.

Chapter 48

It was a couple of days after Amagi and the other Orb people had joined the Archangel.

And right now Mayu Ramius was walking slowly through the ship's halls with a water balloon in each hand looking around, after her new favorite victim to prank.

None other then grandpa Amagi.

I title which the man had very quickly earned when he had prank her back.

After that one time where she had screw the top of the saltshaker loose, the second day they had gotten on board the ship, which had resulted in him getting his food completely ruined, and her getting the contents of his glass thrown right in to her face.

Once that had happened, the eleven-year-old girl had instantly decided to declare prank war against the man. Now pretty much doing everything that she could think of to get on the lieutenant's nerves.

She couldn't even remember how many times the funny man had chase her through the Archangel's halls, with the promise of throwing her out of the ship and in to the cold snow outside, not that he had yet succeeded in capturing her.

But the chase was just as hilarious as the hunt itself.

He was much more on guard from all of her tricks then anybody else on the ship, which of course served to make the whole thing even more amusing.

Yet as she continued walking around searching for the ship's new second in-command. She suddenly spotted him all by himself by one of the windows looking out at the huge blizzard outside.

And immediately noticing that he had his guard down, she hurried lift her hand and was just back to hurl the first water fill weapon at the man. When she heard him let out a long depressed sigh, which made her lower her hand again.

It was only now that she took a real good look at him that she was able to tell that he was feeling sad about something, and even true she honestly liked bothering her newest grandpa quite a bit, she knew that now was properly not the best time for it.

So after watching the man a bit longer, she placed both of the tiny weapons over by the wall, so nobody would accidently step on them.

After that, she slowly made her way over to the low spirited lieutenant. "Hey grandpa are you all right? You look really, really depressed right now" the brown haired girl said, with a deeply concerned expression on her face.

Hearing the voice of the Archangel's youngest crew member ask him that. Amagi slowly turned and looked back at the brown haired girl, where he immediately gave her a small yet friendly smile.

At the beginning he honestly did find many of her pranks annoying, yet after a little while he had realized that every time the girl tried or did prank him.

He got something else to think about, other then what had happened to his best friend. Which was something that he was honestly very grateful for.

There wasn't really that many people around the enormous war ship he could talk with about Todaka's death, which had actually served to make the whole thing that much more unbearable.

Yet once the eleven-year-old had decided to declare prank war against him.

He had at long last, finally been able to get his mind away from his dead buddy and over on something else.

Keeping an eye out for the girl and her traps, had quickly proven to be quite a difficult task, and he had been caught more then a couple of times now simply because he had been busy with something else.

Yet as he was thinking about everything that had happened, since he and the other Orb soldiers had joined the Archangel, the little girl beside him once again asked if he was all right, which made him look down at her again, where he could easily tell that the child was concerned about his well being. And just knowing that made the smile on his face grew a little bigger.

"I'm find Mayu dear, I just have a lot on my mind, these last few days has been kinda tough, I lost a lot of good friends in the last battle" he explained in a deeply sad tone, while he again looked out of the window with a far away look in his eyes.

Hearing what the problem was. Mayu thought hard about what to say to the man. And finally after a few seconds, she decided to just say, what was on her mind.

"I actually think that you are a bit lucky grandpa. Apparently I lost both of my real parents two years ago at the battle of Orb. But I can not remember anything about them, not what they looked like or even their names. So I do think you should cherish the time you had with your friends, and do your best to honor them from now on" she said in a loud tone.

Once more looking back at her. Amagi could not help but be somewhat shocked at hearing such clever words from a child, yet when he went through what she had said it did make a lot of sense to him.

He should cherish the time with Todaka and the others, and do his best to make them proud. "You are right Mayu. I'll stop feeling sorry for myself, and do my best to put an end to this war, that was after all what Todaka asked me to do!" The man said in a determined tone.

Smiling a bit at that the girl, slowly reached over and took a hold on her newest grandpa's hand, which she instantly gave a small squeeze.

"I'm glad to hear that grandpa, I don't like seeing you all depressed like that. Now I better get going. I have a pair of water balloons with grandpa Murdoch's name on. I believe that he has been having more then a few days off from my pranks!" Mayu said. Then removed her hand and went over to where she had left the water balloons, now determined to give them to her other grandpa instead.

Watching the child leave like that and knowing what she was up too. Amagi could not help but let out a small laugh. "She really is quite the kid, the captain truly much be proud of her" the man said, knowing that the kid had just won a great deal of his respect.

But just as he turned and was about to continued watching the view, another person began talking to him. "I am, she is such a sweet girl and she cares so much about the people around her. It's actually a bit of a shame that not all people are like her" Murrue told the man, as she slowly walked over beside him and took a glance out of the window at all the snow that was blowing around out there.

Looking a bit at the woman, Amagi used the next couple of minutes to think about her words. "Yeah it truly would be great if we could all trust each other and get along without having to fight" he said in a far away slightly dreamy tone.

He did however not think about that for long, before he asked the brown haired woman what she was doing there. Up until now the only other person who had been there had been Mayu, not that he really minded having some company.

"Well I saw Mayu a little while back walking around with two water balloons. And knowing what she was going to use them for I decided to follow her so that things would not get to far out of hand" Murrue explained, while wondering how Murdoch was going to react once her little mischief dumped the two water fill weapons on him.

As far as she knew the chief engineer had really enjoyed not having to deal with all of Mayu's pranks these last few days. So it was without a doubt going to be really interesting seeing how the man was going to react, once her daughter got down to the hangar.

Realizing that he had been the girl's indented target, the lieutenant let out another laugh.

Then once again turned his attention out towards the rough weather outside, sincerely wondering if all of this snow, was going to cost trouble for the Archangel when the time came for them to leave this place.

And seeing as the captain was standing right next to him. He decided to bring his minor concern to her attention. He frankly didn't want to be stuck there because the engines was fill with snow.

And with that in mind, he again turned his gaze over at the brown haired woman, who by now was watching the view with a far away expression her face.

Yet once he started asking questions about the ship's condition, she was quick to give him the answers he was looking for.

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At the same time else where on the ship.

Mayu slowly stuck her head inside the hangar and took a look around after her new target.

And it did not take many seconds for the small trouble maker to find the large man, over by one of the newer Murasames. Obviously busy debating with another one of the mechanics how they where going to fix the transformble machine.

And knowing quite well how big a workaholic grandpa Murdoch could be at times. Mayu knew that there was simply noway he was going to turn his attention away from the other man, which actually gave her quite the advantage.

So while smiling wickedly at that she began tiptoeing slowly towards the man, seriously hoping that the other mechanic would keep her grandpa distract until she was close enough to give the man her two 'gifts'.

And even true most of the other mechanics realized what the girl was up to, there was not a single one between them that actually felt like giving their boss some kind of warning about what was going on.

To be absolutely honest most of them was actually looking forward to see what was going to happen, once Mayu where so close that she could throw the two water balloons at the chief engineer.

But as excited as they all where about this, each of them where smart enough to continued working like nothing was going on. If they all suddenly stopped doing their jobs, Murdoch would most definitely realize that something wasn't right around here.

Unfortunately as luck would have it, the man Murdoch was talking with had a really terrible poker face. And the tiny smirk that was treating to make an appearance on his lips, was of course not something the chief engineer could avoid noticing.

"What the heck is wrong with you? Why are you standing there grinning like a total idiot?!" Murdoch asked loudly, still having no idea about what was going on not all that far behind him.

Noticing just how close the little girl was to the chief engineer, the grinning man quickly tried to come up with some kind of clever excuse that would not ruin the whole show that was just about to start.

"Well you see sir, I was just thinking about what kind of strategy I was going to use in tonight's poker game. I did take quite the beating the last time we played and I am completely determined to get revenge for that!" The grinning man said in a loud tone, that could be heard through the entire hangar.

Somewhat taken back by that Murdoch could not help but give the young man a deep skeptical look, just as his loud laughter could be heard echoing out through the hangar.

"Hah! That's a really good one, no offense Justin but you are really terrible at poker!" The chief engineer laught, while at the same tome trying to gain at least a little control, over his almost deafening outburst of feelings.

Not overly happy about getting his poker skills insult like that, Justin narrowed both of his eyes a bit then start talking to the chief engineer in a loud determined voice. "Well tonight I'm going to beat each and everyone of you, you just wait and see!" He yelled, while taking another glance back at Mayu that was now only a few steps away from Murdoch.

Seeing that he once more turned his somewhat displeased gaze back at the large man.

That by now actually looked more then a bit like he was ready to fall down on to his knees because of his almost hysterical laughter. He just didn't understand why Justin was suddenly so confident in his poker games skills, up until now the blue haired lad had yet to win even one game. So it just didn't make any sense why he suddenly thought he could win.

But just as he was about to mention that to Justin he noticed that the grin on his face was even bigger now then before, which finally made him realized that something just wasn't right here and when he realize that just about all of the other mechanics was looking at him too, he felt more then a few drops of sweat run down his face and land on the floor.

Yet before he could get his mouth open and ask Justin what was going on a sweet familiar voice suddenly call out to him from behind. "Ohh grandpa! I got something for you, which I'm pretty sure that you are just going to love!" The eleven-year-old girl said.

And just hearing her was more then enough to immediately make him turn around where he was quick to notice two specific things, first Mayu's grining face and then the yellow water balloon heading straight for him.

"Ohhh crap!" He thought out loud.

Just before the harmless weapons hit him and soak him from top to bottom.

But before he could start complaining about that. He saw the brown haired girl throw of her second balloon which land precisely on top of his head, once more sending a small amount of water down over him.

And as the entire crew down there broke out laughing he looked down at the girl with a unhappy glimmer in both of his eyes. "Hah...hah...very funny guess you had more then enough of teasing lieutenant Amagi, which means that I am your primary target again!" The slightly cranky man said, while using his sleeve to remove some of the water from his face.

Still smiling brightly at the man, Mayu began explaining her reason for this minor attack. "Well I was planing on giving him the balloons originally, but once I found him, he seemed to have a awful lot on his mind, and I really didn't want to disturb him too much. But that was when I realized that having things on your mind is not really something you are good at grandpa Murdoch" she said proudly.

Which of course resulted in the laugher down there grew even high, as a few of the other mechanics shouted out a few comments to that remark, much of them about how they all agreed with Mayu on that.

Taking a small glance around at all the laughing people currently in the hangar.

Murdoch let out a enormous sigh as he once more turned his eyes downwards towards the grinning eleven-year-old girl.

"You know what Mayu, you really are the biggest trouble make I have ever met, and I have know more then a few people with a truly sick sense of humor" he softly told her.

Then reached down and slowly rubbed the black oil on his fingers of on her face, making it look like the brown haired girl actually, had a big ugly moustache just under her tiny nose.

And just the sight of her like that, was enough to make a few of the mechanics yell out a few loud comments about her suddenly being senior Mayu, and that she was way to old to be down there.

Glaring at bit at her grandpa for the moustache thing. Mayu once more began talking to the large man in the same overly proud tone as before.

"Well I'm really happy getting such a big compliment from you grandpa. It really means a lot to me that you think, I'm such a grand trouble make. To tell you the truth it can be really tough to keep on making up new pranks like this. If that Murasame pilot Ikeya hadn't given me these water balloons I might have done something else instead!" The little girl said, sounding very much like she already had a bunch of other ideas, for pranks to pull of around the ship.

And knowing that it was either him or Amagi that was on the receiving end of whatever she was planing.

Murdoch slowly moved his left hand up, and removed a few drops of sweat from his forehead, while rolling his eyes a single time at the child's love for pranks.

But after wondering briefly what exactly the child's next scheme was going to be, his rummaging thoughts was brought to an end when he let out a huge sneeze that could easily be heard through the entire hangar.

"As much as I would like to hear what you are planing for the future, trouble make. I think I better hurry head back to my room and get in to a dry set of clothes, so if you are done torturing me I'll see you later" he said, then turned around on one foot and began swiftly making his way towards the exit of the hangar.

He did however not get very far, before he turned around again and looked back at the other mechanics that was still busy laughing at him. "And all of you lazy bums have better be hard at work once I get back. We need to run a complete check-up on both the Freedom and Dearka's Murasame, we haven't had the opportunity to do that for quite awhile now. Because we have been so damn busy, with all of those other Murasames!" The chief engineer said loudly, making certain that they all knew, he was serious about this.

But true they all knew that this was just his way of getting back at them for laughing at him in the first place, there was not a single one of the mechanics who stopped laughing.

Each and every one of them where simply having to good a time to take his minor threats for more work serious.

And noticing that, Murdoch slowly shook his head a couple of times, before walking the rest of the way out of the hangar with a small grin on his face.

He might not ever admit it out loud, but there was a small part of him which actually thought it was kinda nice when Mayu came by to lighten the mood down there in the hangar. It really did help make the other mechanics work that much harder, when they had something to laugh and talk about for the rest of the day.

Once out of sight, the other mechanics instantly started preparing for the check-up on the Freedom gundam and the light blue Murasame, pretty much all of them talking loudly about how silly Murdoch's face had looked when the water balloons had hit him.

Especially Justin who had only been a few steps away from Murdoch had a few things to say about what had occur down there not long ago.

Yet while they where discoursing that, the main source of the humorous entertainment slowly turned around and walked quietly out of the hangar, with a big delightful smirk covering her face.

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Meanwhile elsewhere on the ship.

Cagalli was in the mess hall busy devouring her third lemon fruit, not all that surprisingly she had really been craving something sour lately, and fortunately the ship had more then enough lemons on board to satisfy her big appetite for that.

But unfortunately she was also starting to have yet another craving and without her handsome fiancé around, there was simply no way for the young woman to get rid of her deep somewhat lustful desires, which pretty much resulted in that she was in a real foul mood at the moment.

Something that was violently shown by the way she practically tore through the bitter piece of yellow fruit, making it completely obvious for just about all that saw her that disturbing her right now, was a really bad idea.

"Damn it all, once I get my hands on Athrun he is really going to regret this. I know that I told Kira that I was going to make Athrun change the baby's diaper the first six months after it was born. But I think I'll change that punishment to a whole year!" She growled unhappily, before chewing down yet another piece of fruit, while at the same time wondering, why she had to suffer for something that she firmly believed was Athrun's fault.

She just didn't get why it was fair, that men had to get of so easy while the women had to go through all of this stupid crap.

And as she once more slammed her teeth so hard in to the yellow fruit that a large amount of the sticky fruit juice ran slowly down both of her cheeks, she once again promised herself, that the next time she saw her fiancé he was going to get a nice huge bump on his head.

Yet even true that thought did make the extremely cranky woman feel a little better. It did not take many seconds before that angry frown could again be seen on her forehead, she just couldn't figure out what she was suppose to do with herself right now. She was just so damn frustrated that she honestly felt like going down to the hangar and just take the Duel Rouge out for a small spin around the area.

But as appealing as that thought was to her, she knew that there was just no way she could do that.

It was simply way to dangerous for the small infant growing inside her belly to take a trip around in a mobile suit, even true it wasn't in real life combat, so she just had to think of some other way, to went out some of the deep frustration and stress, she was feeling at the moment.

"There has to be something around this ship that can help me calm down" she growled quietly, while enjoying the completely bitter taste of the fruit as it disappeared down her throat.

Yet as she kept on trying so hard to make up her mind about what to do now, she suddenly heard a pair of loud voices coming towards her location. "I just can't get over how luxurious this ship is, the hot spring is just great after a hard day of work, and the shooting range is much more advance then any other ship I have ever been station on" one of the Orb soldiers said loudly.

Letting out a big laugh at those words, the other soldier immediately began telling his opinion about the white space ship.

"Yeah tell me about it. If I had know that the Archangel was like this, I would have joined this ship a long time ago" the other man said back.

Then used the next couple of minutes to swiftly go through all of the things on this ship that was made to make the trip even more pleasant for the crew, and as he did that it quickly became clear to him that he wouldn't really mind spending the rest of his life on board the Archangel.

Especially if he could convince his girlfriend to come along too, if that where to happen, then everything truly would be perfect.

Yet while he was dreaming about the lovely woman he had left behind back home in Orb so many weeks ago, his comrade next to him soon brought him back out of his thoughts.

"I do know that this trip is really important, but I kinda wish that we where out over the sea, so I could fish a bit. I haven't been able to do that since we left Orb. And I honestly miss it quite a bit" the first one of the soldiers said.

Hearing what his friend's problem was at the moment, the second one of the Murasame pilot's let out a loud thoughtful sound, which Cagalli had trouble hearing from her position down in the mess hall.

"Well if you are so bored that you want to do something like that, why don't you come with me down to the game room and play a few video games? I'm certain that blowing the head off a few monsters will help greatly on your boredom" the man suggest in a loud slightly excited tone, which made it pretty obvious for all that was listening, that he really wanted to beat the crap out of a few monsters right now.

Yet as the first one of the pilots was considering his buddy's suggestion, Cagalli too was doing the same thing. She knew that tearing a bunch of monsters apart would surely help on her bad mood.

So before the other had the opportunity to come up with a reply.

Cagalli instantly rubbed away the sticky fruit juice that was covering her face then stood up and hurried made her way over to the door, where she saw the two pilots only a few steps away from the entrance to the mess hall.

"If he doesn't want to play, I'll be more then happy to challenge you to a game or two. I'm quite frustrated and stressed out right now, so I could really use something that could help me relax!" The blond haired woman said, while taking a short glance in at the one lemon fruit she had left behind on the table. There was actually a tiny part of her, that was slightly tempted to go back in there and get it.

But while she stood there looking at the bitter fruit, she did not notice that the two pilots was somewhat taken back at her eagerness to play video games, and it was only when she tore her gazes away from the fruit and back towards them, that she noticed the slightly surprised look they each had on their faces.

"Ahhhh don't tell me that you guys are afraid to get beaten up by a girl, I had the impression that Orb pilots was some of the most brave soldiers around" she teased in a loud tone, while she gave the two of them a highly daring smirk. Which she hoped would make them forget who she was, and somewhat hurt their male pride so they would be more then willing to take her up on her challenge.

And their response didn't really disappoint her. "If you really want to see just how exactly we Orb pilots do battle lady Cagalli then I accept your challenge. But just so you know I will not be holding back!" The second pilot said determined.

Hearing that Cagalli gave him a small yet somewhat wicked smile. "Great I wouldn't have it any other way. I really do look forward to see what you fellows can do in a video game, beside I find myself really wanting to whip that stupid smirk of your face" the blond girl said, then turn around on one foot and started making her way to the Archangel's game room.

Looking a bit after the blond woman, the two pilots turned and took a glance over at each other. "Well that definitely didn't go as I expected. But I guess it's going to be kinda interesting seeing just what lady Cagalli can do in a video game" the second one said.

Then took of after the short tempered pregnant woman, with his friend following only a few steps behind him.

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Yet while Cagalli was off showing the two Orb pilots just how good she was at playing video games.

Kira was up on the Archangel's bridge, sitting in the chair Murrue's usual sat in, talking with his beautiful wife, who was presently a few thousands kilometers away from the mostly green and blue planet.

And judging from the tired look on her face, she had been extremely busy the last few weeks, since she and Waltfeld had left earth to join up with the Eternal.

"So have you found any information about what the Chairman is really up to?" The male Yamato asked, even true there was just no way he could deny that he would much rather speak with her about something else other then the war.

But he figure that it was properly best to get that out of the way first, before they started on a more pleasant conversation which they where each longing to have with one another.

And even true Lacus would sincerely have loved to just sit there for hours watching her husband's strong determined eyes. She slowly moved her attention away from him, and downwards at the paper in front of her.

"I haven't really been able to figure much out about his plans yet, but I been able to gather together some support from a few people up here, who is also having some serious doubts about the Chairman's true intentions for this world" Lacus said, while thinking about the two former male Zaft pilots and the female one that had joined them not long ago.

But as she did that she once more looked back up, at her handsome husband.

Where she pretty much instantly realized that it took a great deal of her willpower not to get pulled completely in to his deep purple eyes. She practically had to force her gaze away from him, and back down at her desk.

So while her heart was literally screaming over how much she missed the one she loved. The young woman once more began telling her husband about what process she had made since she and Mr Waltfeld had gotten out there.

"They all seem to be really good pilots, and I'm certain that they will be a great help should we have no other means to stop the Chairman but brute force" Lacus said a bit disappointed that she hadn't been able to figure out anything about the Chairman's intentions.

Hearing that they had some new allies, Kira smiled a bit as he watched his gorgeous wife. A huge part of him where really longing to have her back in his arms, and to once more take in the lovely scent of her long pink hair.

It kinda felt like the few weeks they had been apart from each other had been just as long as a couple of years.

And he truly missed her with every last fiber of his very being, and just about every single part of him where sincerely looking forward to the day when the woman he loved and cared about, would return back home to him.

So while once more trying to recall the soft feeling of her long silky hair between his fingers. The male Yamato opened his mouth to tell his wife what he thought about the news she had just given him.

"That's really great news sweet heart, I honestly think we are going to need all the help we can get. But never mind that now, how are you doing up there?" The brown haired man asked in a slightly anxious tone.

He frankly didn't like being this far away from her when the Chairman and Zaft was after her life, he wanted her right next to him, so he could protect her.

Thinking briefly about her husband's question. Lacus played around a bit with the ring he had given her two years ago, just before the battle at Jachin Due. "I'm doing just fine Kira. But I really miss you at lot, it's kinda lonely out here without you, the bed in our room just feel so big without you beside me" the pink haired goddess explained, just as she stopped twirling with ring and again looked back at Kira.

Where she instantly found herself capture by Kira's eyes, something which she did not realize was happening to him too.

Both of them simply sat there for God knew how many minutes, just staring intensely in to each other's eyes, the two of them practically hypnotized, at the mere sight of the one they loved.

And it was only once the male Yamato saw his wife turned her head slightly to the side, that he was finally able to give her a reply to her sweet words. "I miss you too Lacus, I miss you a lot" he softly told her, not once moving his gazes away from her two lovely blue shining orbs.

And even true Lacus' heart start beating that much faster, just from hearing him say those few words to her. She still didn't say anything back, she just kept on staring lovingly in to Kira's eyes, fantasying and daydreaming about the day, when they would be together again.

Yet as much as they would both have loved to just continue sitting there watching one another.

The deep silence was brought to a unwelcome hold, when each of them heard a tiny sound from Lacus' computer which made it obvious, that somebody else wanted to talk with the pink haired woman now.

But even with the knowledge that this could be important, they could after all be under attack or something like that, Lacus still had a few things she wanted to speak with Kira about.

So once the computer made another small yet annoying sound the female Yamato, asked her husband one of the questions she truly wanted some kind of answer to.

"So have you had any luck convincing Athrun to come back home to where he belongs?" The girl asked, sincerely hoping that Kira had somehow found away to talk some sense in to Athrun, about him working together with Zaft and the Chairman.

She knew better then most, how difficult it had been for Kira fighting against Athrun doing the last war, and she was sure that this time around was no different.

Fortunately the small smile on Kira's face made it clear that he had some good news about this matter. "Well for now he is still a part of the Minerva's crew, but once I told him that Cagalli was pregnant he really did seem to be giving the idea of returning back to us some serious thought. He even let me destroy the Saviour, without any resistance" Kira said, while thinking back to how he had torn through his friend's red gundam.

He did however only do that for a few seconds, before he continued telling his wife about what kind of progress he had made, in getting Athrun to see the truth about Chairman Durandal.

"But unfortunately he did seem quite determined to find his own information about the Chairman's agenda. And I seriously doubt he will come back to us before he is able to somehow figure out the truth on his own" the brown haired man said.

While thinking back to how determined his best friend, had sounded doing their last conversation at the battle at Crete.

Quickly going through everything Kira had just told her, Lacus got a somewhat thoughtful look on her face. "That does sound overly risky Kira. If he really does start searching through the Minerva for information about the Chairman, he could end up in serious danger. Especially when he is all alone on that ship" the pink haired girl said.

Honestly deeply concerned that if somebody where to figure out that Athrun was now acting like a spy, he could end up getting either seriously injured or maybe even killed, and Lacus most definitely didn't want for Athrun and Cagalli's child to grew up without a father.

Yet as she sat there worrying about that, it only took a brief moment or two before Kira's low yet serious voice interrupted her concerned thoughts.

"I'm actually quite worried about him too, Lacus. But Athrun knows better then most people how to look after himself. And I'm pretty certain he wouldn't do anything too dangerous with the baby on the way" the pilot of the Freedom assured his wife, in a somewhat confident tone, while seriously wondering what his best friend was doing right now.

He just hoped that he wasn't doing anything totally lunacies and alarming, that would result in him getting a whole lot of unwanted attention.

If Athrun where to end up in a prison cell somewhere on a secret Zaft base, it was going to be extremely difficult, if not even impossible to get him out of there again.

Immediately noticing the thoughtful look which Kira had on his face. Lacus had little trouble figuring out what he was thinking about. "Hmmm I'll make absolutely sure to tell both Mr Waltfeld and DaCosta to keep a close eye on any information about the Minerva. That way we will eventually know if Athrun is in any kind of danger on that ship" Lacus said.

And even true Kira of course realized that it was almost completely impossible for them to figure out, everything that what was happening on the Minerva.

He was happy to know that Lacus would at least ask Mr Waltfeld and DaCosta to do this. Both of them where after all pretty good at sticking their noses in to things which frankly did not concern them.

Especially the Desert Tiger, seemed to know a few shady characters here and there, who seemed to be experts in figure out stuff which was not suppose to be known by anybody else.

But Kira kinda doubt that even people such as them, where actually able to dig up anything about what was going on **inside **the enormous grey Zaft ship. "I'm happy to hear that Lacus. But please do make certain Lacus that you do not do anything that can be easily track. Athrun wouldn't want our help, if it turned out that you got in danger instead of him" Kira said, knowing that their friend would not appreciate their assistance if Lacus ran a bunch of unnecessary risks.

Already knowing that Kira was properly right about that. Lacus nodded a single time in agreement. "I'll be extra careful Kira, just as long as you promise me that you will do the same. I definitely don't want anything to happen to you" the pink haired woman said, with a slightly worried glimmer in her eyes.

Seeing that Kira gave her a small yet reassuring smile. "Trust me sweet heart I will be careful down here, there is after all so many people that I want to continue living my life with, when the war is over" the brown haired man said in a low tone, while a small image of their odd little family appearing in his head.

He did however not get long to wonder what exactly was going to happen once the second Bloody Valentine War war was brought to an end, before they each heard an extremely hard knock on the door to Lacus' room, which made it clear that there was somebody out there that really wanted to get in.

"Hmm I wonder who that can be" Lacus said in a thoughtful tone, then call out to the person outside of the room to come on in.

And it didn't even take a second before the door flew open and in rushed a orange haired woman with a eyepatch over her right eye. And once she got to the middle of the room, she immediately took a quick look around for any threats. But when she realized that there was nobody else in there, she visibly relax as she looked over at the pink haired woman she respect so much.

"Thank God you are all right miss Lacus, I was really starting to get worried about you when you didn't answer any of my calls!" Hilda said, before taking yet another speedy glance around the chamber.

Hearing what the problem was, Lacus smiled slightly at the one eyed woman. "I'm sorry about that Hilda. But I was so busy talking with my husband that I didn't pay much attention to what was going on around me" Lacus explained, a small part of her still wanting very much to keep on talking with Kira, about what else the two of them could do to help out Athrun. And she was also highly curious about, hearing how Cagalli was handling being pregnant.

Immediately realizing that she had chosen to disturb the pink haired girl at a bad time. Hilda seriously started considering leaving the room again so the husband and wife could continue their conversation.

Yet now that she was in there, her deep curiosity about the very person miss Lacus obviously loved so deeply quickly won her over, which instantly made her take a couple of steps closer to the small computer, so she could get a good look at the person the pink haired girl had been speaking to.

And it did not take long before she saw a brown haired young man with purple eyes, looking right back at her with a somewhat confused look on his face. Which was all she need to tell, that he didn't really understand what was going on, at the moment.

Not that she blamed him for that. She too had actually been quite surprised, when she had been told that the mysterious pilot of the Freedom gundam was a kid, only a few months younger then miss Lacus.

But knowing what this kid had done in the last war, was more then enough for Hilda to know that this young man, deserved a lot of her respect. "It's a true honor to meet you Kira Yamato, I have heard a lot of great things about you from miss Lacus. I am especially impressed, that you where able to take down that heartless fool to Rau Le Creuset. That's definitely not an achievement many pilots could accomplish!" Hilda said, knowing from experiences just how dangerous the mask wearing man had been.

Looking a bit at the woman Kira smiled slightly at her. Even true he did not really liked being reminded about his battle with the insane blond man and the Providence gundam, he did after all see one of his close friends die during that fight.

But it was not like the orange haired woman had any knowledge about that. So once he was done shaking away those painful images of Asagi's M1 getting pierced by one of the Providence's DRAGOONs, he softly started talking to the former Zaft pilot.

"I guess from what you are saying, that you knew him at some point doing the last war?" The male Yamato asked, not once taking his gaze away from the one eyed woman on the screen, where he could easily tell that she was thinking quite hard about what kind of reply she should give him.

And finally after a brief moment or two the woman decided that it didn't really do much harm, that she told the boy about her one meeting, with the utterly insane mask man.

"I fought along side him doing the battle Battle of Yggdrasil, where I witness first hand just how crazy he could be. And once he got promoted it to commander I was actually asked to join the Le Creuset team. Which I refused almost instantly, that man was simply way to cold and heartless for my taste. I just didn't want to go in to battle with a guy, who didn't care one bit about the lives he took!" Hilda explained, while thinking about some of her past experiences with Zaft, before she had joined up with the Clyne Faction.

Quickly going over everything the woman had just told him, Kira had a somewhat thoughtful look in his eyes, while he nodded a few times in understanding. "I see, thank you for telling me about that miss Hilda, I'm thankful that a person as kind as you are looking after my wife" Kira said, then gave the orange haired woman a small yet grateful nod to show his appreciation.

Seeing the brown haired man do that Hilda looked away from the screen and over at the wall.

Whenever somebody was acting so kindly towards her, she always had a bit of trouble, figuring out just how she was supposed to response. She did after all prefer taking action, then sitting around behaving all friendly and pleasant.

"Ahh kid please don't mention it, you are making me feel all embarrassed up here, but you are quite welcome. Seeing as both of us are so determined to protect miss Lacus. I do believe that the two of us should at the very least trust each other, so please put you worries to rest kid. I swear on my life that I will not let anybody hurt her, while she is on board the Eternal" Hilda said, while giving both of the teens a determined look.

Truly grateful that the former Zaft pilot was so protective of her, Lacus decided to put in her two cents, about the subject.

"I'm am truly deeply honored that you would go to such length to protect me. But please don't get yourself kill needlessly Hilda, we might not have know each other all that long. Yet it would sadden me greatly should anything happen to you, or your two friends" Lacus said, while looking directly in to Hilda's remaining eye.

Which instantly made Hilda realize just how serious the other woman was about this. And she knew for sure that both Mars and Herbert would be glad to know that miss Lacus was concerned about their safety.

"I'll be sure to mention what you just said miss Lacus, to those two numskulls the next time I see them. But I better get going now, I'm certain that you still have a few things you need to talk with your husband about, so I'll be seeing you later miss Lacus" she said loudly.

Then gave the girl a brief salute before she turned around and started making her way over to the door.

She did however not get very far, before she call back that it was nice to talk with Kira and that she was really looking forward to work together with him in the near future. Which Kira response to, by telling her that it had been a pleasure to meet her too.

After that it did not take long before Hilda disappeared out of the room, leaving the young couple to continue with their conversation.

Once gone Kira smiled gently at his lovely wife, as he began telling her his opinion on the orange haired woman.

"Hm she seemed like a generally nice person. I'm really happy that somebody like that is around to protect you, while you are up there. I most admit that I have been kinda worried about you since you left" Kira said, honestly glad to know that there was more then just Mr Waltfeld around to keep Zaft, and that Durandal fool away from Lacus.

Hearing that Lacus turned her attention away from the door which Hilda had left through a few moments ago and back towards her husband, where she smiled calmly at him.

"I really don't think you have to worry Kira. It's not like Zaft actually knows where we are hiding out, and if they did happen to find us, it's not like we are completely defenseless. We do have a few mobile suits stash away up here, both the Gaia gundam and a few older Zaft models" Lacus said, while thinking about the three black upgraded CGUEs and the two GINNs in the same colour.

Not saying anything to that at first, Kira slowly turned his purple gazes downwards in a somewhat thoughtful manner.

"I know that you guys are more then capable of handling yourself sweet heart. But you are my wife and I love you, so I just can't help but be at least a little concerned about your well-being while you are away" The young man said, then once more looked back up in to Lacus' lovely blue eyes.

Where he instantly took notice of the gentle look she now had on her face. "I love you too Kira, and I'm happy that you are concerned about me. Yet if you look at it from my point of view, I should be the one to be concerned. I do think that piloting the Freedom gundam is much more dangerous then hiding out in this huge asteroid field" Lacus softly told him.

While using a few short moments to try and count just how many times she had been concerned about Kira's safety, whenever he went out first in the Strike and then the Freedom.

That was when Kira cut in to her wandering thoughts about him piloting a mobile suit. "I know that fighting in the Freedom is dangerous Lacus, but I honestly feel like it's something I have to do. I really don't want a repeat of what Rau Le Creuset was trying to do. I have to make absolutely sure that this doesn't turn out like the last war, with Naturals and Coordinators trying everything to exterminate each other again!" Kira said determined.

Then wondered briefly if Rau Le Creuset's plan and whatever the Chairman was scheming had anything in common. He did however only get a few brief moments to think about that before Lacus interrupted his rummaging thoughts.

"I do understand why it's so important that you pilot the Freedom again Kira. I too don't want to see the world end up like that once more. It really was terrible what happened back then. But that does not mean that I like seeing you go out in to battle, there is actually a tiny part of me that wished that we hadn't gotten involved in this war" Lacus said, as she reached over and gave Haro a small push.

Not really having a tough time telling that she was feeling a kinda bad about what she had just said. Kira really wanted to reach out, and wrap both of his arms around her, and just hold her as long as humanly possible.

But knowing he couldn't do that through the screen, he thought a small second or two about what would be the most clever thing to say at the moment. He really did want to calm her down right now.

"I don't think you have to feel bad about that Lacus sweet heart. I'm pretty sure that most people out there fighting this war, would most rather have stayed home with their friends and family, so why should you feel any different? If you take a trip around the Eternal and ask the crew about it, I'm certain that most of them would say that they preferred being together with their loved once, instead of fighting and killing other people" Kira said, sounding very thoughtful about the whole matter.

Looking straight at him, Lacus thought hard about her husband's words, and it did not take long before she found herself nodding slowly in agreement.

"Yeah you are right Kira. I'm sure that what most of us is thinking about right now, is when this war will be over" the pink haired woman said, while at the same time wondering just how many weeks and months all of this fighting would continue.

That was actually something both of them where wondering about right now, so they where each pretty quiet the next few seconds, while those thoughts flew through their heads.

And it was only when Lacus shook away those depressing thoughts. And asked Kira how Cagalli was handling the whole baby thing. That they got something a lot more cheerful discursion.

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It was about ten minutes later when Kira left the bridge.

And began making his way down to the Archangel's mess hall to get some lunch.

He was honestly quite hungry right now, seeing as he had skipped breakfast this morning. But even true his stomach was making quite a lot of noise, the deep hunger he was feeling was the farthest thing on his mind.

The young man was simply far more occupied thinking about the conversation he had just had with his wife.

He might have done his very best to hide it doing their talk, but seeing her through the small screen had really remind him just how much he actually missed her, and wanted for her to come back home to all of them, here on the Archangel.

Yet as he wander onwards with those thoughts flying through his mind.

He didn't really pay all that much attention to his surroundings, which resulted in that he was almost run over by a blue and black radio control car that came racing down the hall.

And it was only because Mayu's voice call out to him that he was able to make sure that the small fast moving vehicle didn't collided with his left foot. "You shouldn't walk around daydreaming like that big brother Kira, you almost got hit by Blue Racer!" Mayu said loudly, making it sound very much like he would have been badly injured had the small toy actually hit him.

But seeing the displeased look on her face, made Kira feel somewhat uncertain about what his response should be to that statement. So the Freedom pilot just stood there for an unknown number of seconds looking at the girl until he slowly took a glance down at the car, where he could easily tell that the small toy had seen quite a tough time around the ship.

Especially the front of it had more then a few minor dents here and there from hitting the ship's thick walls. It was actually pretty obvious to him that it would only be a matter of time before the toy would break apart completely.

Which wasn't really much of a surprise seeing as the eleven-year-old had always been kinda rough on her toys, she had actually broken more then a few things in the two years Kira had known her.

And that was properly the main reason why she was a bit concerned about this piece of toy, seeing as there was simply noway to replace it should it end up breaking now.

So while still looking at the car Kira briefly wonder if there was away for him to repair the toy, it wasn't nearly as complicated as Haro and Birdy.

The two robots did after all have some things that made them kinda unique, Haro was intelligent enough to talk and recognize the people around him, while Birdy could fly just like a normal living bird.

And seeing as it wasn't all that difficult repairing the two robots if somebody knew what he was doing. Kira was pretty certain that he could fix the small radio control car, should it suddenly stop working.

But before he could get his mouth open and say anything to the small girl about that, Mayu cut him off by loudly asking him what he had been daydreaming about just now.

And seeing the deeply curious look Mayu now had on her face, Kira decided that he could always talk with her about the toy later. It was completely obvious to him that she really wanted to know, what exactly had been going through his mind, before she had met up with him.

"Well you see Mayu it's not long since I finished talking with Lacus, and that kinda remind me just how much I miss her" Kira told her in a far away tone, that was all Mayu need to tell that there was a whole lot going through her big brother's mind right now.

So as she kneel down and picked up Blue Racer, which she had decided to name the small toy because of the blue strips on it. "I miss her too big bro. It's been such a long time since they left, and I kinda miss playing with Haro, maybe the next time I see big brother Athrun I should tell him that I want a Haro of my own. Perhaps I could get Mr Light Blue or Mr Purple!" Mayu said, sounding very excited about the idea of having a small noise making robot of her own.

And even true Kira would honestly like to tell Mayu, that he could easily make a Haro for her. He knew that he just didn't have all the necessary parts for the small, yet highly irritating robot.

But giving her a Haro of her own was actually a pretty good idea for a gift.

If there was one thing Mayu had made absolutely clear almost immediately after she start living with them. Then it was, that she had a certain fondness of playing with Mr Pink and all of Lacus' other Haros.

And just thinking about how happy she was, when playing with the many robots was more then enough to make Kira decide, that once he had to opportunity to get all the right parts, he was going to make her a Mr Purple.

But for now it was properly best not to mention that to her.

If he did that, Kira had no doubt that the overly impatient child would be asking him about it every single day, until they finally got back home to Orb where he could get whatever he needed to assemble a Haro for her.

So while thinking about how happy a gift such as that was going to make her, there was a tiny part of him that literally began yelling at him, that it had been quite some time now, since he last spend anytime with the girl. Which he actually felt more then a little guilty, considering he saw Mayu as a younger sister.

And as he watched her look the toy car over. Kira tried his very best to come up with a suggestion to something the two of them could do together. And it did not take very long before he realized that it had been quite a while now, since they had last played a game of Risk against each other. Which he knew was something that they each had enjoyed a lot back home in Orb.

And with that in mind he gave the girl a small yet challenging smirk. "So Mayu do you want to be green like usual, or do you want another color for a change while I conquer your countries?" Kira asked in a teasing tone.

That was all that was needed to make her look away from the toy car and up at him, where she immediately realized what it was he was asking her. "All right you are on big bro! And I'll be green like always, while I whip your pathetic countries of the map!" The girl boasted loudly.

With that said, the two of them turned around and started making there way down, to the Archangel's mess hall, where all of the board games was stashed away.

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At the same time elsewhere.

Miriallia Haw was laying on her front on top of her's and Dearka's bed.

Just about all of the young woman's attention was turned downwards towards the thick book which she had borrowed from Arnold a few days ago.

But as humorous as she found the book, she did have a bit of a tough time keeping all of her attention on it, seeing as her handsome boyfriend was at this very moment busy making push-ups over by the entrance to the room.

And just the sight of the large amount of sweat that was slowly running down his muscular upper body, was more then enough to distract the eighteen-year-old girl more then a little bit.

Yet one look at his stupid grinning face made it pretty clear that he wasn't doing that to get exercise any longer, there was only one reason why the big fool was doing this, and that was simply to mess around with her.

Which frankly did bother her slightly, there was just no way she was going to let him win this socalled game or whatever it was call. So after once more forcing her eyes away from him, she thought hard about what her countermove to this was going to be.

And after a small moment or two she realized that she was still dressed in most of her Orb military uniform. The only things missing, was the long stocking that was supposed to cover both of her legs, which she had removed before getting on the bed.

And she hadn't really been dating Dearka Elsman for very long, before she had realized that he was a bit of a leg man. And he had shown on more then one occasion that he especially loved her legs.

So while still thinking about that, Miriallia slowly lifted her left bare leg away from the mattress and up in the air, making it so he couldn't avoid getting a really good look at it.

And to make it even more tempting and flirtatious, she began slowly dangling it back and forth in a almost hypnotizing rhythm. Something which Miriallia highly doubt he would be able to resist looking at, for very long.

But even true the young man was quick to figure out what his lovely girlfriend was up to, he just couldn't help but take a glance up at her long bare leg.

Yet as much as he yearned to feel her smooth skin underneath his fingers and as tempting as it was to get up in to the bed together with her. He was quite determined not lose this somewhat weird competition the two of them had going, about who of them could keep their hands of each other the longest.

And knowing that it was now his turn to make a move he thought hard about what the best strategy would be. He seriously needed to do something that would really get to her, the whole leg thing was a pretty 'slick move' and he was honestly having quite a tough time keeping his eyes away from it.

So after thinking a few seconds about it he slowly turned over, and started doing sit-ups instead, hoping that this would show of just enough of his muscles, so Miriallia wouldn't be able to keep on staring so intensely at that stupid book.

But once he started on that, Miriallia just took a short glance down at him where she gave a smile that couldn't be interpreted as nothing else then seductive, after that she slowly reached up and unbutton the first three buttons on her blouse.

"Whiiiffff! It sure is hot in here" she sighed softly, while pretending to pull the blouse away from her sweaty body a few times. Making it so that Dearka caught a small flash of the light blue bra she had on underneath her uniform.

And when she saw his face get slightly red she gave him a small kissing sound, before she once more continued behaving like the book, was the most interesting thing in this room.

And just the sight of her doing that, was more then enough to make the young Coordinator narrow his eyes slightly. 'Damn she is definitely playing dirty now, how the heck am I suppose to counter that move? It's not like I have anything on my upper body that I can just take off, she definitely got the advantages now' he thought to himself, while trying his best to keep his eyes away from her.

Which proved to be quite the challenge, especially when she began with the whole seductive movement with her left leg again.

And that alone was almost enough to make him give her the victory in their slightly weird game. It certain did take a great deal of his willpower to tear his gaze away from her again and downwards towards the floor.

But as he tried so hard to come up with a response to her last daring attack, his overly flirtatious girlfriend let out a small sigh as she said a few things about just how hot she felt right now, and how sticky all of her clothes felt because of the warm in there.

And just hearing her say that, was more then enough to make Dearka realize a few things. 'Ok that's it, I admit defeat! But who in their right mind would actually care about that now' he thought to himself as he stood up straight and began making his way towards the bed.

"Well if you are really that hot my lady, then why don't you allow me to help you get out of those bothersome clothes?" Dearka asked with a small yet naughty grin on his face, as he got down on the bed beside Miriallia where he slowly ran his right hand gently over the soft skin on her left leg.

Feeling him do that Miriallia turned a bit to the side and looked up at him. "Hmmm that's a really interesting offer Dearka, so why not" she said, with a happy smile on her face.

Just as he moved down and softly pressed his lips against her's, kissing her gently. While he slowly removed his hand from her leg, then reached up and began working on the buttons left on her blouse, doing his best not to miss any of them, even true he was honestly was more then a little bit distract by the whole fighting around with her exploring pink tongue, which was now halfway over in his mouth.

And it really didn't help much on his concentration when she let out a deep passion fill moan right in to his mouth. While she slowly moved her hands up and down his back a few time, until she wrapped both of her arms around his neck pulling him down on top of her.

Which was of course more then enough to make Dearka take a small break in the highly important task of removing her clothes, and once he felt all ten of her fingers start playing around with the hair at the back of his neck, he instantly put a lot more passion and love in to the kiss, trying his very best to show the lovely girl beneath him, just how much she truly meant to him.

And the only reason why they actually broke their deep lip lock was because they each needed a little time to regain their breath. But even as they laid there trying to get over the highly passionate kiss they had just shared.

They continued staring directly in to each other's lecherous eyes for an unknown number of seconds, until Miriallia gave the man a warm content smile.

"I love you Dearka, you know that right?" She asked, still breathing quite hard after their small yet pleasurable makeout session.

"Yeah I know Mir, I love you too" he told her.

Just as the man and woman once more pressed their lips back together. While at the same time working hard on getting the one they loved so dearly out of what little clothes they had left on their bodies.

To be continued.


	49. Chapter 49

Chapter 49

It was early morning on the land battleship Bonaparte.

And even true most of the crew was still fast asleep in their beds, there was one certain person that was awake, and at this very moment making his way down to the ship's enormous hangar.

Once down there Neo instantly took a quick look around to make absolutely certain that he was the only person down there right now, and when he was completely sure that there was nobody around to disturb or asking him any stupid questions.

The mask man began making his way over to where the monstrosity of a war machine, that was on board this ship. But even before he could get close to the insanely huge mobile suit he kinda felt like a tiny insect that was just waiting for a human to step on it.

"I still can't believe that bastard wants me to use this thing, even if it's not using any of it's many weapons, bringing such a thing in to the middle of a city, will still kill a ton of innocent people!" He thought out loud.

Just as the many still unknown faces which he had actually gotten quite familiar with ever since he had first hit his head, each gave him a highly disapproval look which frankly made him feel even more guilty about using the Destroy gundam.

But what the hell was he suppose to do about it. He might not like the idea of bringing this damn monster in to a city. But he knew that there was more then a few Logos supporters on this ship.

And if he actually began questing Lord Djibril's orders, he was pretty certain that just about all of the Bonaparte's crew, would gladly tell the terrorist leader about his doubts, which would most likely result in him getting a few extra air holes either in his head or somewhere else on his body.

Which was most definitely not an idea he liked, but perhaps it was preferable then helping that bastard to Djibril destroy who knew how many ZAFT-occupied cities in Eurasia.

But as tempting as making a whole bunch of trouble was to him, there was a more logical part of his mind that told him that doing something like that would not really result anything. He would just end up dead while somebody else would lead the attack instead of him, and if he was around he could perhaps find away to make sure that not to many people got kill by this damn thing.

So while still thinking about that he slowly ran his eyes up over the enormous mobile suit next to him. "I seriously hate this damn thing, whoever came up with the idea of building a mobile suit this big really has to be out of his mind!" The blond man grumbled to himself, while thinking about the reports he had read about this monster of a mobile suit.

And just the thought that this one machine had ever more weapons then a entire squadron of Windams put together, was more then enough to make a light shiver run down his spine.

"Man this seriously is as mess up as it can be" he said, then slowly turned around and began making his way towards the exit of the hangar, frankly wondering who exactly of the two Extendeds would be the best choice for the pilot of that ugly monster.

He knew that Stella was still highly unstable after everything that had happened to her.

Even with all the work that had been done to make the blond woman forget all about being capture by Zaft.

Especially that boy piloting the Impulse, seemed to be lingering in her mind for quite a while. Seeing as she had already mentioned to him more then a few times that a person with dark red eyes, had been hunting her dreams every night since she got back.

It had practically seemed almost impossible to get that boy out of her mind. It was kinda like the boy's image was determined to stay inside Stella's confused mind no matter what. And what made the whole thing ever more alarming was that she apparently didn't know if she was suppose to be friends with that red eyed person or if she was suppose to fight him.

But seeing as the memories of the Zaft pilot refused to leave her mind completely, there was little doubt that she was definitely a very unstable person to place in front of the Destroy's controls.

And it was not like Sting was any better seeing as he was still utterly fixated on getting revenge for Auel, even true he had no idea about who the blue haired boy was any longer.

Yet under his last treatment Neo had made the foolish decision to let the green haired man keep his deep lost for revenge. But now that he was giving it some serious thought he was frankly starting to really regret that mistake.

And according to the reports about what was going on around the ship, Sting did not speak about anything else, other then how he was going to destroy the Minerva and the Impulse.

And that deep fixation frankly made Sting a bad choice for the pilot of the Destroy too.

Yet unfortunately as luck would have it, he would have to choose one of them to pilot that monstrosity.

But the big question now was who of them was going to cost the least death and destruction once they moved out. But one look at how unstable both of them where, made it pretty obvious that a lot of people was going to die, no matter who of the teens where piloting the Destroy.

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Yet as Neo was trying so hard to decide what the hell he was suppose to do.

One of the very people he was thinking so hard about, was sitting quietly on her bed looking out of the window, at all the snow which was blowing around outside of the huge ship.

But even true most would properly say, that the weather looked quite nasty and that it would be very unwise to go outside on a day such as this. The blond haired girl actually enjoyed watching all of the white stuff flying around out there, and there was a small part of her, that was wondering just where exactly it was going and what it was going to see along the way.

She kinda wish that she could go along with it and just forget all of those scary things that was happening around her. Especially the nightmare which had awoken her so early was really hunting her mind right now.

For some reason she had been inside some kinda of weird black four legged mobile suit, and even as she was sitting so calmly there on her bed she could clearly see herself doing battle against an orange mobile suit, which she kinda felt like was really getting on her nerves, yet when she succeed in shooting the annoying mobile suit down. She just didn't know if she was suppose to feel guilty about it or not.

The overly confused girl just couldn't figure out if her battle with that orange mobile suit was just a dream or if it was something she had actually done at some point in time, everything was just so weird and confusing it was like she had lost the ability to distinguish between her dreams and reality.

So while the images of the red eyed boy and many of the battles that she had contributed in ever since the first time she got in to the four legged mobile suit continued rummaging hastily through her mind, she turned away from the window and reached out after a bunny like teddy bear that was sitting just beside her on the bed.

And after looking in to it's star shape green eyes for a seconds, she tightly hugged the fluffy thing taking what little comforter she could get from feeling it's nice fur like body against her face.

"Stella do not understand what's going on. Stella is so confused about everything" she told the blue and pink rabbit, while she cried softly in to it's fur, trying her very best to figure out just what in the world was happening to her.

But no matter how hard the deeply traumatized girl tried to ignore and get rid of the many muddling thoughts that was going through her mind.

The only thing the confused teen actually succeed in doing was give herself an immense headache.

Which after a little while served to make her lay down on the bed where she hugged both the toy rabbit and her thick pillow. Not that any of those actions did much to ease the deep pain she was in, her head frankly did feel like it could explode at any minute now.

And it was only after ten long minutes of twisting and turning in pain, that the grieving headache slowly started disappearing again and that she was finally able to once more drift of to sleep.

Yet seeing as it did not take many seconds before the troubled blond haired girl was quite far away in dreamland.

There was of course no reaction from her when the door to her room slowly flew open as Neo Roanoke stepped in to the small chamber where he immediately took a quick look around, until his worried gaze landed on the sleeping girl.

And even true it was a bit hard to tell in the dim lighted room. He could easily tell that there was a lot of things troubling the pure girl right now. The pained expression on her face, made it pretty obvious that the brainwashing treatment the Extendeds got on daily basic wasn't as effective on Stella as it had been, which meant that she was most likely starting to remembering more then a few things from the past.

And that was definitely not a good thing, if she really did remember everything it was very unlikely that they would be able to control her any longer. And if that where to happen Djibril would properly tell him to get rid of her, seeing as she had lost her usefulness.

"Damn it, I really do wish that I could honor my promise to that Zaft pilot and take the pure girl away from here. But there is nowhere else she can get the necessary treatments, and without those she won't survive very long!" He thought out loud.

Still watching the girl as she slowly turned her back towards him, then mutter something about being scared.

Which instantly made Neo narrow both of his eyes underneath the mask. "I might not be able to carry out my promise to that brat. But perhaps I can keep her away from battle by putting Sting in the Destroy. It's not like he is in the lack of fighting spirit" the captain said, while thinking briefly about the green haired teenage's violent behavior.

And with that decision made he slowly reached out and picked up the cover which he carefully brought up around the sleeping girl. And after standing there watching her sleep so calmly for a short moment or two.

He turned around and walked back out of the room, leaving the sleeping lass by herself.

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Meanwhile elsewhere on the ship.

Sting Oakley quickly reload his gun then once more took aim at the human like target in front of him.

Trying his best to imagine that the white figure with the two black eyes was wearing a Zaft uniform. And once he had a pretty clear image of that, he instantly pressed down on the trigger making a single yet deadly bullet leave the gun, which hit the forehead of the target.

Yet even true a shot like that would normally be something he would be very proud off. It did nothing to lessen the deep frustration he was feeling right now, he might be doing his best to hide it.

But he honestly found it highly bothersome that Stella or whatever her name was, had joined up with them not long ago. He frankly saw that damn bitch as the biggest competition for the honor of piloting the Destroy gundam.

He just didn't get why Neo was treating that weak crybaby with so much kindness, in his eyes she was nothing more then completely useless. And he seriously thought that the best thing to do with that damn weeper, was to throw her out in the cold snow, maybe a few hungry animals would get a nice little dinner out of her, that way she would at the very least be of some use.

"Damn it all, I'm seriously starting to hate that girl. Seeing how much she whines, I can't believe that she can even pilot a mobile suit. But at least if I have to fight along side her, I wouldn't have to worry about find some sort of diversion, she is just perfect for that job!" The green haired pilot said to himself. Not even close to realizing that the blond girl, he was thinking so coldly about had actually been a close friend, at some point in the past.

But with all of his memories of her being removed. She was nothing more then a enormous irritation that he frankly didn't want anything to do with, she could rot in hell for all he cared.

And with that in mind, he fired two more shots at the target, the first one hitting the right side of the face while the second one brushed up against the left shoulder then impaled itself in the wall behind the target.

Seeing that happening, the young man immediately got a pissed of frown on his forehead then glared down at the gun, like it was actually the small weapon's fault that he had missed his intended target, which had been the left side of the face.

For some reason he found it impossible to believe that he was the one to blame for the bad shot. And with nobody else present down there he was forced to take his anger out at the gun, which he did by dumping the weapon in the small trash bin, that was located at the entrance to the shooting range.

After that he went over to find another gun which wasn't broken, which meant that it did not take many seconds before he was again busy pumping his next target full of holes.

He did however only do that for a short while before he placed the weapon back where it belonged then left the target range, now heading straight towards the mess hall.

Utterly and completely determined to get some food down in to his stomach, before the entire mess hall could be fill up with fools he did not want to talk with if there was away for him to avoid it.

Pretty much everybody on this damn ship was really starting to get on his nerves.

And he had been seriously tempted on more then a few occasions, to beat the living daylight out of more then a few of the Bonaparte's crew members who had made the dire mistake, of breathing when he was nearby.

It wasn't long after that before the green haired pilot arrived at the mess hall, where the first thing he noticed was Neo sitting by himself playing solitaire and eating the bacon and eggs standing in front of him.

And even true most would properly not be able to tell with the ugly mask on.

The pilot of the Chaos gundam knew the blond man well enough to tell that he had a lot on his mind at the moment. And if Sting had to guess he would say that it was most likely about the upcoming attack on whatever countries in Europe that was currently supporting Zaft.

But as curious as he was about what was going on in Neo's mind, it only took a small second or two, before he decided that getting something to eat was much more important, then talking with the captain, he could always do that when he had gotten his hands on some food.

And when he saw the ship's chef place another tray of food on the counter. He instantly made his way over there and grabbed the tray, where he hurried moved both of his eyes over the meal to make certain that everything he wanted was located on the tray.

Yet the only thing that was missing as far as he could tell was some beverage and Sting knew that the only way to get that was from the vending machine standing over by the entrance to the room.

And not wanting his food to get cold, he hurried went over to the vending machine where he got a huge bottle of chocolate milk, which he shook a few times like one where suppose to, then he made his way over to the mask man and dropped down beside him, where he took a look at the many cards that was laying spread out in front of the captain.

"Hmm black seven on red eight" he said, then took a huge bite of his food, chewing it slowly a few times before he finally swallowed it, after that he took a mouthful of the chocolate milk, while watching as the mask man follow the suggestion he had just given him.

Neo did however not mess around with the cards furlong before he turned and took a brief glance over at the pilot of the Chaos. The two of them hadn't really talked all that much since Auel had gotten killed by the Impulse.

So the mask man was honestly wondering quite a bit just what exactly it was, that Sting wanted to speak with him about now, the green haired man had after all been really anti-social ever since their last battle with the Minerva. So it was actually a bit of a wonder that the Chaos pilot was suddenly in the mood to talk after such a long time of keeping to himself.

And while still keeping a close eye on the other man, the Windam pilot moved a few more cards around before he reached out and picked up a piece of well roast bacon from his plate, then took a small bite of the tasty food while asking the other man if there was anything he could help him with.

Hearing the mask man ask that Sting reached out after the chocolate milk and took another mouthful of the liquid.

"Well actually Neo, I was curious about who you a planing on putting in the Destroy? I seriously think that it would be a really bad idea to have that weeping girl pilot that machine" Sting said.

Not doing anything to hide, that it was really important to him to be chosen as the pilot of the Destroy.

Glaring slightly at the green haired man. Neo didn't really like the cold way Sting was speaking about Stella.

But he realized that it just wouldn't do much good to began arguing about that now. It wasn't like Sting was actually going to listen to him anyway, the Chaos pilot did seem absolutely determined to hate and dislike Stella no matter what he said to him.

And knowing that there was not one thing he could do about that, he slowly reached out and picked up three new cards.

"You don't have to worry Sting, you will be the one piloting the Destroy. With the metal state Stella is in right now. I don't really think she will be able to handle such a complicate machine as the Destroy" Neo said, while placing the Queen of Diamonds on top of the King of Spades, then took a glance up at Sting to hear his reply to what he had just told him.

But Sting just gave him a big satisfied smirk. "All right that's really great, I guess we got something useful out of her being capture by Zaft" he said in a highly pleased tone, then stood up and left the mess hall, before Neo had the chance to say anything to that cold remark about the girl.

So in the end he just throw the cards down on the table. "Man I don't think I have met a more cold blood person then him" he thought out loud.

But just as he had finish that sentence a cold feeling suddenly ran through him, as he saw another mask wearing man, giving him a creepy smile.

"What the hell...who the heck is that...that...guy?" He asked, while holding on to his head, trying his best to get these creepy images out of his mind.

He could for some reason easily tell by the angry emotions that was going through his body right now, that he did not like this guy, as a matter of fact, he hated the bastard with a passion.

There was actually huge part of him that was practically screaming for him to pull out his gun and just destroy the creepy mask man. And when he saw the weird man point his own gun at him, he almost jumped up from his seat.

But before he could do anything he was properly going to regret, the many images began slowly disappearing again.

That however did not mean he could just behave like nothing had happened.

He had a very tough time, getting some much needed air back down in to his lungs.

It kinda felt like he had been running marathon the last three days in a row. And the large amount of sweat that was running down his forehead, was almost enough to make him tear the mask off.

"I need to get out of here before anybody sees me" he breath out to himself, while he carefully got back up on his feet, then began staggering over towards the exit of the mess hall.

Still wondering who the heck that mask man was, and why the mere sight of him was freaking him out so much.

To be continued.

If you didn't get it. The person with the mask Neo saw near the end of this chapter, was Rau Le Creuset.


	50. Chapter 50

Chapter 50

It was in a certain red haired girl's room on the Minerva.

Lunamaria slowly opened her eyes and looked up at the ceiling. "Aw damn, I really need to stop sleeping on my injured arm. It's always so damn sore in the morning, and I'm seriously starting to hate that" the girl complained softly to herself.

Then slowly reached over to rub her highly sore left arm, she just didn't understand why the hell this thing kept on hurting this badly.

And she promised herself that the next time she saw an Orb Murasame, she was surely going to teach whoever was piloting it, not to mess with her.

She did however not get long to think about that. Before another thing that was bothering her enter her mind. "I wonder how long I have to walk around with these bandages. I could seriously use a nice hot shower, I haven't been able to wash up properly since I got this stupid injury" she said, while taking a look down at her left arm, sincerely hoping that it wouldn't be much longer, before she could get rid of all the bandages around it.

Yet before she could really start daydreaming about a nice refreshing bath, the red haired teenager came to the realization that she had another minor problem that she needed to take care of.

So after listening to Nicol's calm breath a little while, the red haired girl slowly rolled over on her right side and sat up on the bed. Where she looked down at her still fast asleep roommate.

And even though most would properly say, that he looked slightly foolish in the position he was in right now, with his mouth halfway open and his left leg entangled in his cover.

But Luna however could not stop herself from finding him incredible cute right now. He just seemed so calm and peaceful when he was sleeping like this, completely different from the more well-mannered and strict attitude he had around the ship.

It was just so unbelievable nice seeing him behave like a normal human being for once. And Luna had found herself the last couple of days, wanting to see this side of him much more often.

And that was the one thing actually bother her with the idea of getting well again.

She was absolutely sure that once she did that, Nicol would move back to his old chamber. And that meant seeing him like this, would be a rare occasion which was not something that pleased Lunamaria one bit.

The female pilot really did want to continue hanging out with Nicol like this, and she feared more then a little bit that she wouldn't be able to do that, once her left arm was completely healed.

"Hmm I wish that I could talk with him about this, but I have no idea about what to say to him" the girl whispered quietly to herself, then slowly got up on her feet and began making her way over to her bathroom to take care of what business she had in there.

Once in there she immediately turned on the small faucet and waited a few seconds until the water was nice and warm, then she used her right hand to throw some of the liquid up on to her face, hoping to wash away some of the tiredness, that was still pretty easy to see in the corners of her blue eyes.

Yet washing her face properly with just one hand, did prove to be somewhat of a challenge to the red haired girl. Even though she had done that more then a few times ever since she got injured, by that damn Murasame.

"Man how in the world is a girl suppose to make herself pretty with just one hand?" She asked herself, while looking in to the small mirror hanging in front of her.

Deeply relieved that she was not that kind of girl that just had to have on a ton of makeup in the morning. If she could get on a little eye shadow, that would be enough to make her happy, the rest of the day.

She just felt like she didn't look nearly as gloomy with that on. But even knowing that she didn't bother wasting her time putting that on now, she wanted to get out of there in a hurry and back in bed.

If she could do that, she could most likely convince Nicol to go get breakfast for both of them, she already succeed in doing that more then a few times, and what kind of person did not enjoy getting breakfast without having to lift a finger.

So while daydreaming about what kind of meal their breakfast was going to be today, the woman hurried throw yet another handful of the refreshing cold liquid up in to her face, then reached out and picked up a towel in the exact same color as her hair.

And after using that fluffy item to dry the water of her face, she took one last look in the tiny mirror where she could see that the bandages covering her forehead was slightly wet, not that she cared much about that right now, she could always ask Nicol to change it once he woke up.

And with that decided she took one wistful look over at her small shower, but realizing that there was no way she couldn't use that right now she quickly shook those thoughts out of her head, then reached out after the button that was suppose to reopen the door.

But once the young woman stepped back out of the bathroom. She was somewhat disappointed to see that Nicol was awake, and busy stretching both of his arms up over his head in an attempt to get some of the soreness out of them, from sleeping on that thick mattress the whole night.

Yet when his tired gaze landed on her, the green haired man immediately low both of his arms, and gave her a small smile. "Good morning Luna. I hope that you had a good nights sleep" he said in a gentle tone, while forcing back a yawn, that was just about to leave his mouth.

Feeling slightly displeased that he was awake already, seeing as it was now impossible for her to trick him in to getting breakfast for both of them. So while trying not to show him the disappointed look she now had on her face, the red haired girl moved back over to her bed, and sat down on top of it, where she slowly reached out and picked up her hairbrush.

Which she immediately started using, trying her best to make sure that what little hair, that wasn't covered by that highly annoying bandages, looked at least somewhat nice and pretty.

But even though it wasn't that hard getting it to sit like it use too, the oldest one of the two Hawke sisters was far from satisfied with the result, seeing as it had been quite a few days since she had last been able to really soap in her hair and get all the dirt out.

And it was honestly annoying her greatly when her hair felt all sticky and filthy like this.

She most definitely had to either talk with the Minerva's doctor or his assistant about when it was time to remove these damn bandages. And with that decision made she turned her attention over towards Nicol where she gave him a small smile.

"I slept just fine Nicol but I'm really looking forward to get these bandages off. You can't even imagine how much my left arm scratches right now, it's so damn annoying that I'm completely sure that it would drive most people insane" the redhead explained, not bothering to do anything to hide that her patient with this entire ordeal was just about used up.

Hearing what exactly the girl's biggest problem was, Nicol took a glance down at her injure arm. "I do wish that there was something I could do, to help you out with that Luna, but unfortunately I left my magic healing powers back home at the Plants. Yet if you want me to, I'll be happy to go with you down to the sick bay and ask the doctor what he has to say about your injuries" the green haired man promised in a gentle tone.

Just before he once more began talking. "But I do fear Lunamaria, that you will have to walk around with those bandages for quite a while. Your injuries where pretty bad. I'm just relieved that you didn't get any permanent injuries, the doctor did say that both your left arm and your head, would be just fine after getting some time to heal" Nicol said now in a serious tone.

Then thought briefly about the terrible scar Yzak had gotten on his face from one of their more violent battles with Kira and the Strike gundam. He was just so happy to know, that Lunamaria would not get such a nasty scar like that on her forehead, or on her left arm.

He did however only get a few short moments to think about the past, when Lunamaria's loud voice brought him back to their present time. "I know that I was pretty fortune back then when that stupid Murasame hit me. But that does not mean this isn't annoying Nicol, I'm almost ready to gnaw of these bandages" the red haired girl said.

Then reach down and slowly ran her fingers over her left covered up arm, trying a bit to determined just how much longer she would have to walk around with this on.

Yet while she was doing that, Nicol just couldn't help but let out a brief chuckle or two at the image of her actually trying to gnaw her way thought all of the bandages located on her left arm.

But once Lunamaria realized that he was laughing the girl immediately turned her attention back towards him. "Mind telling me what's so funny Nicol?" She asked in a somewhat bossy tone.

That was more then enough to make it completely clear to Nicol, that it would properly be a wise move on his part to give her some kind of answer. "It was just the whole gnaw thing, I found quite humorous Luna. If I have to be completely honest about it, I would very much like to see how long it would take for you to gnaw apart all of those bandages" he said, trying his best to hide the minor grin on his face.

Seeing just how much trouble he was having keeping his laughter in, the female mobile suit pilot took another glance down at her injured arm, before she again turned her cranky gaze back at her temporary roommate.

Where she watched his highly amused expression for a few seconds, until she swiftly turned her back towards him in a insulted manner then told him to keep his huge mouth shut.

Yet her words and the angry glare she was sending him, only served to make Nicol laugh that much harder. "All right I'm sorry that I tease you Luna. Please tell me if there is anything I can do to make it up to you" he said in a loud yet gentle tone.

Hearing that, it took least then an instant before a bright look appeared on Luna's face. "Great if you are that eager to make it up to me, then go get breakfast for both of us!" She said loudly, while smiling sweetly at the boy.

Not overly surprised at hearing what the girl wanted. Nicol let out yet another small chuckle while he slowly got up on his feet, where he once more stretched both of his arms up over his head.

"Ok Luna, if that's what you want I'll go get something to eat to both of us, you just relax here until I get back" the green haired pilot said, before he began making his way over to the only exit and entrance to the room, with the redhead looking after him until the metal door flew shut after him.

Once gone, the oldest Hawke sister laid back down on her bed, and looked directly up at the ceiling with a small yet content grin on her lips. "Hmm I really could get use to having him get breakfast for us every morning" she told herself then slowly closed her eyes.

Honestly wondering just how many more times, she could trick Nicol in to fetching all of her meals, for her.

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So while Lunamaira was waiting for Nicol to return with their meals.

The green haired young man was walking slowly through the ship's halls heading for the mess hall. Frankly wondering just how much longer, they where going to stay at this out of the way base.

But seeing as they where still there even though it had been a few days since the Minerva was repaired.

He guess that they had yet received any new orders. And with Shinn releasing that girl there wasn't really much point in them continuing towards their original destination.

So maybe it wasn't so strange that they where still there, especially when taking their tiny number of mobile suits into account. It was after all only his own mobile suit and the Impulse that was still function like they where suppose to.

And with Shinn still locked up tight down in the brig. There was simply noway to deny that their fighting strength was extremely limited at the present moment.

And he for one wasn't overly keen on the idea of fighting a entire Earth Forces fleet on his own.

So at least until they where told what kind of punishment Rey and Shinn was suppose to receive, it was properly best that they stayed put there for now.

By doing that they would at least be sure, that they wouldn't have to fight a whole army alone, this base might be on the small size, but it had an impressive number of mass-produced mobile suits.

Which could undoubtedly be a huge help in taking out anything that tried to destroy the Minerva. But even knowing all of that, Nicol was still quite curious about how long they where going to stay there.

"Perhaps once Luna and I are done eating our breakfast, I should go talk with the captain about when, we are going to depart from this place" he mumbled quietly to himself.

Then increased his speed and began walking that much faster, there was actually a lot of things he felt like he needed to do today. First of all it was necessary for him to help out Lunamaria where he could, next he needed to speak with the captain, and finally it would properly be wise to take a thorough look at his GOUF to make absolutely certain, that it was ready for combat.

Ever since the last battle, he had been so occupied looking after Lunamaria, that he hadn't had much time to do a proper maintenance check on the sun colored mobile suit, which of course meant, that it was without a doubt long overdo.

He just hoped that he would be able to do that today, especially if they where going to head out from this dull place some time very soon. It might become necessary for him to defend the ship all on his own, and if he had to do that he was completely determined to make certain that every last system and weapon on the mobile suit was in tiptop condition.

Yet as those thoughts was flying through his head, he suddenly spotted a certain person coming hastily towards him from the opposite direction. "Good morning Deputy Captain, you seem rather busy this early in the morning" Nicol said, while giving the man a short salute.

While the Minerva's second in-command stopped just a few feet away from him. "Well, you see Nicol, I was just told that not long ago the captain receive a message from the Council about what kind of punishment Shinn and Rey, is going to receive for releasing the Gaia pilot" he said, obviously very impatient about getting down to the brown haired woman's room.

Hearing the grey haired man tell him that, Nicol immediately straighten up a bit, as he got a much more serious look on his face. "So do you have any idea about what is going to happen, to the two of them?" The GOUF pilot asked in a low tone, while looking directly into the other man's eyes.

The reply he got was a bit of a disappointment. "Unfortunately not, yet you know as well as me Nicol what the punishment is for releasing a prisoner" Arthur said in a low tone, that made it somewhat difficult to tell how he felt about all of this, his expression however made it absolutely clear, that he was more then just a little worried about what fate was awaiting the two pilots.

Slowly moving his gazes away from the second in-command and downward towards the floor, which he watched for an unknown number of seconds. "Yeah I know what the punishment is...execution..." he said, with a far away look in both of his eyes.

He seriously hoped that it would not come to that, he might not always get along with Shinn.

But that most definitely didn't mean he wanted to see him die, not that he believed that they should go unpunished for beating up a few crew members, so maybe they could stay a few more days down in the brig, and think about what they had done.

And even though Nicol was slightly tempt to mention his thoughts to the other man, he decided to keep his opinion about the matter to himself, at least for now. He could always speak up, if they actually where condemn for execution.

Yet as he stood there trying to figure out just how all of this was going to end for Rey and Shinn. It only took a few moments until Arthur's voice interrupted his highly serious thoughts.

"I'm sorry Nicol, but I need to get going now. I'm certain that the captain is beginning to wonder where I am. I'll be sure to tell you once I know a bit more about what exactly the Council wants done with the two of them" the grey haired man said.

Hearing that Nicol once more looked back at the Deputy Captain. "All right, Sir, I'm sorry that I disturbed you while you where so busy, I'll talk with you later, Sir" the GOUF piloted said in a respectful voice.

Then walked past the man and continued towards his destination, while the second in-command did the same.

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Meanwhile, elsewhere on the ship.

Talia slowly placed the message she had received from Gilbert not long ago on her desk. Then got up on to her feet and stepped over to the window and took a look outside at the many dark depressing clouds out there.

It was pretty obvious that there was a immense storm brewing in the distance, and that it was heading straight towards them.

Not that the woman was overly concerned about that.

She knew better then most that it would take a great deal more then just powerful wind and rain to do any real damage on the Minerva. Especially if they remained in dock here until the storm had blown over, then there was noway the crew or the ship would be in any real danger.

"Of all the punishments I thought they where going to get, this was certainly not one of them. How in the world could he tell us to just let them go? If we do that Shinn will think that he hasn't done anything wrong by letting that girl go!" She thought out loud, while taking a glance back at the message on her desk.

Like the rest of the crew she had of course not wanted to see Shinn and Rey being executed.

But that they could get of so easy after having done, was somewhat of a thorn in her side. Why couldn't that man at least have told her to keep the two of them lock-up, the next three or four weeks.

By doing that, they would at least be able to show Shinn that stealing the Impulse and freeing a prisoner was not something Zaft took kindly. So it honestly pissed her off more than a little bit, that her lover was willing to turn a blind eye to what had happened down here. And it was quite the battle for the woman to keep down those powerful emotions, that kept on telling her to get in contact with Gilbert immediately, so she could tell him what she thought about this decision.

And she wonder how the rest of the crew would react once they realized how easy Shinn and Rey got through all of this. She realized that there was more than a few of the ships crew, that was highly displeased with what the two of them had done.

She just had to think about the last few days to know that this kind of punishment was not the kind the crew had expected. It was only yesterday Yolant had been by to talk with her about staying at this base.

The young mechanic had told her that he had always seen Rey as a good friend.

So being knocked out by him was quite the betrayal in Yolant's eyes, and the mechanic had told her that he wasn't certain that he could keep on trusting and working together with the blond mobile suit pilot.

It had actually taken her a little over an hour of calm talking to convince the teenager to stay as a part of the Minerva's crew. And not ask to be transferred away from the ship.

Truth being told, it had only been when she had started telling him about how lonely Vino would be without him around, that she had finally been able to convince him to stay on board the Minerva.

That however did not mean that he had left her room with a happy smile on his face. He had actually been more then just a little cranky when he had disappeared out of her room, not that she didn't understand why.

If she had been in his shoes, she would without a doubt have reacted in the same manner. It was far from pleasant being betrayed by somebody which one saw as a friend and a comrade.

And she was pretty certain that it would take some effort on both Rey and Shinn part to win back Yolant's trust.

But as the woman stood there thinking about all of this and watching the dark gloomy clouds outside. Her serious thoughts got interrupted by a couple of hard knocks on her door.

And already knowing who it was out there, Talia slowly moved away from the window and back over to her chair, which she immediately dropped down in to. Quickly getting comfortable, before she call out after the man on the other side of the thick metal piece, that was meant to function as a door to her room.

"Please come on in Arthur, the two of us have a lot to talk about" she said loudly, then took a glance over at the window just as the noisy sound of thunder could be heard outside.

But as much as Talia disliked bad weather like this, she did not get long to be grumpy about the large amount of rain that was falling down over the area and everything else that was happening outside. Before the door to her small chamber flew open and in stepped her old friend Arthur Trine.

And once he was standing directly in front of her desk, Arthur immediately took a curious glance down at the paper there seriously wondering just what kind of news was written there.

Yet even though it was somewhat tempting just grabing the paper and take a look himself, the man realized that doing something like that without asking would properly get him in a whole lot of hot water with the brown haired woman.

"So Captain, good news or bad news?" He asked nervous, while he turned his gaze away from the paper and back towards her. Now waiting patiently to hear what she had to tell him.

Looking straight at him for a few long seconds, Talia slowly moved her hand over and gave the paper a light push in his direction. "Do read it yourself Arthur, I'm sure that the news there will knock your socks off" she said softly, then took another look out of the window just as an enormous exploding sound could be heard not all that far from there.

Not totally certain what the Captain meant by that, Arthur slowly reached out and picked up the paper. And after taking one last look at the woman, he turned his gaze downwards at the few words write on the paper.

"What in the world is this!? Are they really planing on just letting them go after everything they did?" He asked in a loud tone, highly shocked about the knowledge he had just obtain from reading this small document.

And after going over the few words one more time. Arthur again looked back at the Captain seriously hoping that she would tell him that it was just some kind of sick joke she had put together.

Yet one single look at her face made it pretty clear that this was no laughing matter, and that the words on the paper where the real deal. "But don't they realize what kind of effect this will have on Shinn. He is already well know for having the habit of disobeying orders, this will most likely make him think, that he can get away with just about everything!" Arthur said, not doing anything to hide that he was having a tough time believing the few words he had just read.

Knowing that Arthur was right about everything he had just said. The captain didn't say anything at first, as she slowly leaned backwards in her chair where she let out a deep frustrated breath.

"That's what I'm worried about too Arthur, unfortunately there is not a single thing I can do about it. That message came directly from the Chairman and when he first decides to do something crazy like this, there is just noway to change his mind" Talia explained, seriously wishing that her lover was around so she could so 'kindly' tell him, what she thought about his solution to this whole affair.

Thinking a moment or two about her words, Arthur just couldn't help but find this entire matter completely ridiculous. If it had been somebody else who had released a prisoner like that, he highly doubt that their punishment would be that lenient and overall forgiving.

"Is there nothing you can do about it, Captain? I mean, I do not want the two of them execute or anything nasty like that. But releasing them like they haven't done nothing wrong, will make a pretty lousy example to the rest of the crew. There will properly be a bunch of them who will think, that those two are getting special attention for some reason!" The Deputy Captain said loudly.

Then he hurried to take a deep breath before he once more continued talking. "And I don't really think there is that many around that will be happy to know that those two can do whatever they want, without fear of punishment"

Looking at him for a brief moment or two. Talia thought hard about what she could do about all of this. Yet in the end she found herself slowly shaking her head.

There was simply nothing the woman could do to change a direct command from the Chairman and the rest of the Zaft Council.

"Unfortunately Arthur, I'm kinda low on ideas about what to do. If I could somehow convince the Chairman to change his mind about this, I would have done so immediately after I got this message. But it would seem like the only thing we can do now, is hope that Shinn's ego doesn't grow to much over this" the woman said annoyed.

Hearing those words Arthur nodded a few times in understanding. "I see Captain, so when are you planing on letting them out?" He asked, seriously wondering how the crew was going to react once they saw Shinn and Rey walking around between them again.

Not answering that question immediately, the brown haired woman just leaned backwards a bit where she let out a long exhausted breath, making the few hairs covering her forehead fly around slightly, before they once more fell back to where they where usual located.

"I should actually have released those two a few minutes after I got the Chairman's message. But I just find this whole situation so unbelievable frustrating. If I have to tell you the honest truth Arthur, I don't really feel like talking with any of them right now" the woman explained, while she slowly reached up and used one hand to try and remove some of the sleep from her eyes.

Not totally certain what to say to that, Arthur couldn't help but feel somewhat sorry for the captain. It was pretty obvious to him that this whole incident with Rey and Shinn releasing that girl, had been a really stressful affair for the captain.

Watching her a bit longer, he just couldn't help but feeling slightly sorry for her. And he quickly came to the conclusion that he really did want to do something to help the woman out.

And with that in mind he got a somewhat determined expression on his face. "Why don't you just stay here and relax Captain. Then I'll head on down to the brig to let the two of them out. I'm almost certain that those two won't care who lets them out of their cells" he said, while considering asking somebody in the mess hall to bring the captain a nice cup of tea.

Hearing that Arthur was willing to go down to the prison cells and let the two idiots out. Talia found herself giving her old friend a small yet grateful smile.

"Thank you very much for that Arthur, I don't think I'll be able to face those two without telling them just how disappointed I am in both of them" she said. Just as yet another huge exploding sound could be heard from outside.

Not that any of them where paying much attention to that right now. The Deputy Captain just gave the woman a small smile back then turned around and start making his way over to the exit.

"You are quite welcome Captain, I'm always happy to help you out" he said calmly, then quickly disappeared out of the door.

And once the door flew shut behind him Talia slowly got up from her seat and went over to her bed, which she immediately laid down on. Determined to just rest her eyes for a few short moments.

But it did not take very long, before the woman was fast asleep on top of her bed.

Finally allowing the deep exhaustion, she had been feeling the last couple of days to take over.

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So while Arthur was heading for the brig and Talia was slacking off for a change.

A certain blue haired young man was currently in his room, working on the small computer located in front of him.

Using a few reliable websites to try and figure out what was happening in Orb right now. And from what he had been able to gather, from the last three sides he had been going through everything seemed somewhat peaceful back home, at least for now.

So while slightly relieved to know that. He slowly moved the mouse over, and double click a single time on a news report about the Seiran family.

"It has been reveal from the Orb government that the Orb fleet has return back home. Yet even with the tragic loss of Orb's proud flagship the Takemikazuchi. The youngish member of the Seiran family. Yuna Roma Seiran seems to believe that he and the fleet was able to greatly help the Earth Alliance hamper Zaft's war effort down here. And he and the rest of the Seiran show great sadness about all the lives that has been lost in the last few battles!" The brown haired woman on the screen said.

Which brought an end to the small yet highly informative video.

"Hm that's a load of bullshit, Orb didn't really accomplished anything by joining the Earth Forces. Not that I'm completely shocked by figuring out, that the Seiran family is actually lying to the medium. I guess that telling them the truth, would have been way to harmful on the Seiran's reputation" Athrun thought out loud.

Then start to searching around for any rumors about the Archangel.

It had only been a few days ago, when he had found a website that was actually trying to figure out where the white space ship was hiding. But even though it was hard to take some of the things those people using this website said serious.

Athrun had already made one account of his own, then instantly start some rumors about the Archangel being seen somewhere in south Africa. And when he noticed that a great deal of the sides most regular visits was already busy chatting with each other about that.

And after thinking briefly about some of the things they wrote, he put in a few more details to make the story sound that much more believable.

"Ok that should do it. If somebody is actually using this website to try and find the Archangel, then they will have a tough time finding her now" he mumbled, while at the same time wondering what all of the people he cared so much about was doing now.

He really hoped that all of them where all right, especially Cagalli.

And just the mere sight of her happy smiling face running through his mind, was more then enough to make the young man feel more than a little guilty about not being with her right now.

He truly did want to be with her, take care of her and make sure that everything was all right doing the pregnancy. It just seemed impossible for him to feel okay with being here on the Minerva, while the woman he loved had to carry the burden of the pregnancy all on her own.

It just wasn't right.

"Damn it, I should just have gone with them instead staying here. Maybe it really was a stupid idea for me to let Kira destroy the Saviour. If I still had that mobile suit I could at least get out of here and try to find the Archangel" the blue haired man growled unhappily to himself.

Then reached out and turned off the computer.

And after watching the small machine shutdown, he stood up from his seat and step over to his bed, which he instantly throw himself down on.

Looking straight up at the ceiling with a displease look on his face, while listening to the loud sound of thunder outside. "The next time I tell Kira to destroy my mobile suit, I think I'll ask him to just remove the head or both of the arms. Then it should be somewhat easy to repair again and that way I would at least still have a method to escape from wherever I am" he whisper quietly.

Then thought a few seconds about everything the Saviour gundam had been capable of.

It truly had been an extremely useful and powerful mobile suit no doubt about that. And he was actually a bit pleased to know that Zaft didn't have any more of those machines in their arsenal.

He knew better then most people, that if Zaft actually had a whole army of Saviour gundams fighting on their side. It was going to be almost completely impossible to stop them.

If the Chairman really had something else planned other then ending the war.

So after thinking about the Saviour a bit longer. He shook his head a couple of times then turned over and looked in to the wall. "I wonder if it's going to be a girl or a boy, and what we are going to call it" he said softly to himself, while trying to decide what he wanted most of the two genders.

But in the end he realized, that it didn't really matter all that much to him what it was, just as long as the kid was happy and healthy.

"Perhaps now that I finally have time for it, I should try thinking about what would be good names for the kid. Maybe once I see Cagalli again, I should try asking her what she thinks about Lenore if it's a girl" he said.

Knowing fully well that his mother would have been deeply honored having their child named after her.

But even though it wasn't all that hard for him to think up a girl's name, it was a bit more of a challenge to him thinking up a boy's name, there was simply no way he was going to ask Cagalli to call the kid Patrick if it turned out to be a boy.

He just didn't think that his father deserve such an honour after everything he did in the last war. And he honestly didn't think that the name Uzumi was something that could be put together with Zala, it frankly sound it a bit stupid now that he thought about it.

So maybe Rusty Zala or Miguel Zala was a better choice. It didn't sound nearly as weird as Uzumi Zala. "I definitely need to talk with Cagalli about this, knowing her she might even have a name in mind for the kid" he mumbled.

Then thought a few moments about which names Cagalli might be considering using for their kid. "Mayura, Asagi, Juri" he whispered, then saw all three girl's smiling faces slowly ran through his mind.

And just thinking about all those brave things the three Astray girls had done, doing the battle of Jachin Due, was all that was needed to instantly make Athrun realize that he wouldn't really mind naming the kid after one of them, if that was what Cagalli wished to do.

"Those three names are pretty great too. And if we get a boy there is also the possibility of calling him Mu Zala" the young pilot thought out loud, while thinking a few seconds about the Hawk of Endymion's highly confident smirk.

And when he thought about just how the blond man had lost his life, Athrun could not help but feel somewhat honor about the idea of naming his son after the Strike pilot, which sincerely made him wonder what his lovely fiancée would say to that idea.

Cagalli might have been pissed off at Mu more then a couple of times doing the last war. But Athrun knew that deep inside she had actually liked the somewhat crazy blond man.

"I'm certain that she would like that idea too if it's a boy" Athrun said, then once more turned over and looked up at the ceiling.

Not realizing that the blond man in his thoughts, might still be out there somewhere.

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So while Athrun was thinking and daydreaming about what the future would held for him and his family.

Arthur Trine was slowly making his way down to the Minerva's brig with an displeased frown on his face. He still wasn't happy with the idea of letting Rey and Shinn out like they had done nothing wrong.

In his eyes, the two of them should have stayed locked up the next two or three month. He just couldn't fathom how in the world the Chairman could think it was wise to let those two out after everything they had done.

It wasn't like he was a fan of the more crude punishment like execution or a long hard beating with a whip. But he truly did believe that those two troublemakers should stay in their cell longer.

That way they would at least have more time to think about everything they had done. Even though the grey haired man kind doubt that they actually felt any kind of guilt over this, Shinn seemed to firmly believe that Rey and him had done the right thing by helping the Gaia's pilot escape.

And just the thought that the boy was so proud of what he had done almost made Arthur feel like his stomach was ready to turn inside out. Fortunately the man was somehow able to force back those feelings of nauseous, as he stopped in front of the door to the brig.

Where he just stood quietly for an unknown number of minutes. Until he finally let out a deep unhappy sigh. "Well here goes nothing. I really hope that Shinn wouldn't brag to much about this to the rest of the crew. If he do that, I might just throw him down here again" the man whispered, even though he realized that there was no way he could do that, without Shinn doing something wrong first.

So after standing there a bit longer sulking about what he had to do. He once more sighed loudly before he slowly reached out and opened the door to the Minerva's small cell area.

Once inside the somewhat depressing room, the first thing he took notice of was that Shinn was still fast asleep in his temporary bed, while Rey was wide awake and reading in a book, which as far as Arthur could tell was something about the samurai history in Japan.

And even though he was a bit surprised that Rey was actually interested in stuff like that.

He didn't really show it all that much as he gave his low lips a small bite, before he started talking to the two prisoners in a loud tone.

"Well gentleman it looks like your time down here is up. Apparently the Council has decided that you are not going to be charge for freeing that girl" the grey haired man said, not doing one thing to hide that he thought that the Council's decision about this matter, was as wrong as it could be.

And without giving them anytime to come up with a response.

He swiftly ran the keycard first through the lock on Rey's cell and then on Shinn's, which instantly made both prisoner doors make a short yet loud sound that told all of them currently present down there, that each of the doors was now unlocked.

So after sending both teenagers a small glare that was meant to show them that he didn't have nearly as much respect for them as he used to have. The Deputy Captain turned around, and left the room without saying another word to any of them.

Once gone Shinn slowly crawled out of his slightly uncomfortable bed, where he stretched both his arms up over his head and let out a small tired yawn. "What could have made that guy so pissed? I don't think I have ever seen the Deputy Captain so cranky before" the Impulse pilot said loudly, while slowly stepping out of the tiny room, that he had been living in the last couple of days.

Slowly closing his book Rey also exited his temporary room, where he immediately gave Shinn a small yet skeptical look. "I don't think he is the only one who will be angry at seeing the two of us being let out like this Shinn. We did after all some nasty things to help out that girl. So we can't really blame the others for feeling a bit distrusting towards us" Rey said in a serious tone.

Then took a glance into his cell to make certain that he hadn't forgotten anything in there, after doing that he once more began talking to Shinn.

"So it would properly be best for both of us, that we do not start talking with the others about what had happened. Just try and behave like you did before this matter with Stella, Shinn" the blond man said quietly.

Then began making his way towards the exit of the prison area, with dark haired boy looking after him the entire time until the solid metal door flew back shut behind him.

After that Shinn blinked a few times as he thought hard about everything Rey had just said to him. "Ahhh hell, what are let down, I was actually looking forward to go rub my release in Athrun and Nicol's faces. Those two where acting like the biggest smartass' in existence, when he got back from delivering Stella to Neo" he said to himself, then thought about the disappointed looks those two had given him when he got back from his trip.

Just thinking about that, was all that was needed to make a deep cranky vein appear on his forehead.

"Well, if I can't brag to those two jerks about this. I guess that I could always muck Athrun with the Saviour's destruction. I don't think I'll ever be able to understand what the Chairman was thinking, when he decide to give that jerk such a powerful mobile suit as the Saviour, and make him a member of FAITH. He is a complete and utter weakling if you ask me"

Then thought back to some of the past battles he had fought along side the Saviour's pilot, which made him realize that there was some of them where the blue haired guy had actually fought quite well.

Like that one time they had gone up against three of the Earth Forces' Zamza-Zah mobile armors or whatever they where called. "Perhaps that moron wasn't such a big weakling in the last war as he is now. I wonder what made him change like that" Shinn said, while rubbing his chin in a thoughtful manner.

And it did not take long before he was able to come up with a answer to his puzzling thoughts. "It's properly because of that damn girl" he muttered irritated, while he saw Cagalli Yula Athha's face ran slowly through his head.

"Guess that's one more reason to kill that stupid bitch" the pilot of the Impulse whispered angrily. Then started making his way towards the exit of the room, seriously wondering when he would have the opportunity to end the life of the Orb Princess.

And even as he was walking slowly down the Minerva's halls. The short temper gundam pilot could clearly picturing himself ripping one part after another of her Duel Rouge gundam, until he was finally able to get to the cockpit and free this world from that damn girl.

So while he continued his highly evil daydreams about ending Cagalli Yula Athha's life.

It did not take many seconds, before a small yet highly wicked smirk slowly appeared on his face, as he kept on heading back towards the room he was sharing with his best friend.

To be continued.


	51. Chapter 51

I don't really have a good excuse for this taking so long. I hope you guys enjoy it. Don't forget to review now.

Chapter 51

Everything was calm and peaceful on the Archangel.

The huge blizzard that had been going through the area had at long last finally quiet down a bit, so now there was only a few small snowflakes descending slowly towards the ground.

But even though it was still extremely cold out there, Kira was still outside helping Mayu build a snowman on the front deck, something which the girl did nothing to hide that she was enjoying quite a bit.

"It's real shame that we don't have any old clothes to dress him in. It could be really great if we could somehow make him look like either grandpa Amagi or grandpa Murdoch. I would have loved to see their faces if we did something like that" Mayu said excitingly.

Just as she started rolling together the next huge ball of snow that was suppose to be the middle part of the snowman.

And as Kira watched the small brown haired girl work so hard on that. He just couldn't keep the happy smile away from his face as he slowly reach down in to his pocket, and pull out a big carrot which he had made sure to get from the kitchen, before the two of them went outside.

"Well if it's any consolation Mayu I do have a nose for him" Kira said cheerfully, while slowly placing the carrot beside their first part of the snowman, which the two of them assembled only a few moments ago.

Taking a look down at the orange vegetable, Mayu immediately got a happy smile on her face while she continued working on the next huge ball of snow they where going to need for their creation.

"That's great big bro, but I really wished that we had something that could be used as a hat for him" she said, while Kira began helping her move the now larger snowball around on the deck, it was after all starting to get to big for her to move around on her own.

Yet even as the male Yamato was doing that. He got a somewhat thoughtful expression on his face. "Well if it's really that important to you, that he has some kind of hat Mayu. It wouldn't really hurt to take a look around the ship, to try and find something that could be used as a hat. Perhaps if we are lucky the chef has an old pot we can use" Kira suggested, while he slowly lifted the huge snowball and placed it carefully on top of the first one.

Seeing that they where one step closer to finish their masterpiece, Mayu kneeled down and started working on combining the two large snowballs so the smaller top one wouldn't accidentally fall off.

And as Kira began helping her with that, the smaller Ramius began telling her big brother figure about her opinion on what he had just said. "I think that's a really great idea big bro. And if there isn't something in the kitchen we can use, maybe there is something down in the hangar grandpa Murdoch would mind we took" she said, now again sounding very excited about this whole project the two of them where working so hard on.

Knowing that she was right about the hangar being a good place to find useful items, Kira nodded slowly in agreement. But before he could get his mouth open and say anything to the girl.

The door leading into the ship flew open and out stepped Murrue carrying a blue vacuum jug. "Hey you two how far is the snowman?" She asked even though it wasn't hard to tell, what was done on the snowman, and what still needed some work.

But Mayu didn't realize that her mother already knew the answer to her own question. So the smaller Ramius instantly stood up straight, and gave her mother a bright happy smile.

Then started telling her just how much more work that needed to be done on their project. "Well we need to make one more snowball as his head, and then we need to find a few things that can be used as his mouth and eyes!" She said loudly, then disappeared into her own thoughts for a few brief moments, until she again started talking to her mother.

"And it would also be pretty great if we could find something that could be used as a scarf for him, preferably a purple one that is after all my favorite color!" She just about yelled, as she slowly kneeled down and once more continued working on the low part of the snowman.

Seeing her daughter being so happy was of course more then enough to make a huge smile appear on Murrue's face. And she was highly grateful for all the time Kira had been spending with the girl the last few days.

And as she turned and took a look over at the brown haired young man, which she had seen as a little brother, practically since she had met him. She could of course not help but notice, the way he was rubbing his hands together, which was a pretty obvious sign that he was freezing a bit right now.

And seriously not wanting the teenager to freeze to death while out there, Murrue slowly opened the vacuum jug and pour some hot chocolate into a small black cup, which she had brought along with her out there.

"Here Kira drink this, it should help keep you warm" the woman said, as she handed the cup over to the young man.

Seeing what it was Kira took the steaming cup of hot chocolate away from her and took a small sip of the warm tasty liquid. "Thank you miss Murrue, that's was just what I needed. It's actually much colder out here then I had first expected" he said.

Before taking another mouthful of the hot beverage, enjoying the chocolate like taste of it, as it disappeared down his throat.

Still smiling at him. Murrue took a glance over at her daughter before she gave the Freedom pilot a response. "You are welcome Kira, I just figure that the two of you had to be cold after being out here for such a long time" Murrue said, then pour herself a cup of hot chocolate, which she instantly started drinking while wondering if her little girl was freezing in the clothes she had on.

She definitely didn't want Mayu to catch a cold now, because she wasn't properly dressed. But as far as Murrue could tell, it wasn't really the cold weather that was bothering the girl right now.

Yet it was pretty obvious from her expression, that there was something the girl wasn't entirely happy about. And when Murrue notice the child steal a small glance at her cup of chocolate, it took the captain least then a second to realize what was going on.

Apparently Mayu was a bit offended about not getting offered any hot chocolate of her own.

"If you really want some of this Mayu, you need to take a small break from your working on the snowman. This stuff is still very hot, and I do not want you to pour it on you hands while you are busy crawling around down there" Murrue explained to her daughter in a serious voice.

Hearing her mother's words, Mayu narrowed her eyes slightly as she looked at the half finished snowman, then over at the blue vacuum jug that she knew contented the brown tasty liquid, she liked so much.

Just seeing the way she kept on looking back and forth between the two things, made it pretty obvious to both Murrue and Kira, that the girl was having a tough time deciding what exactly was most important to her, at the moment.

But in the end the brown haired girl apparently decided, that satisfied her thirst and getting some nice hot chocolate was just a tiny bit more important then building the snowman.

So after taking one last glance at the snowman, the smaller Ramius slowly got back up on her feet, and stepped over in front of her mother.

"I would like a cup of hot chocolate too mom. It's not like this guy is actually going to go anywhere" Mayu said loudly, as she watched her mother pour some of the brown liquid in to the third cup, she had brought along with her up there.

"Here you go Mayu, it should help keep you warm while you and Kira are working on your snowman. And I did make sure to ask the chef before I left the kitchen if he had anything against making some kind of soup for supper" Murrue explained softly.

While watching her daughter take a light sip of the brown beverage, obviously a bit worried about burning her tongue on the liquid.

Murrue did however not get long to watch her daughter enjoy the hot chocolate. Before Kira's calm voice made Murrue turn her attention over on him.

"That sounds really great miss Murrue. I noticed when I visited the kitchen yesterday evening, that he had a bunch of tomatoes laying on the kitchen table. So it's most likely going to be tomato soup" Kira said, then took yet another mouthful of the beverage.

Yet as he thought about just how much he was looking forward to get a nice big portion of that, when the time came for all of them to have supper.

That was when the youngish person present out there, decide to share her opinion about todays supper, with her big brother and her mother. "Yuck I really don't like tomato soup, I would most rather have pizza or something else that don't taste so horrible" the girl complained. Sincerely hoping that she could get something else for supper, than the blood red colored soup.

Hearing that and seeing the displeased expression on her daughter's face, the Archangel's captain chuckled softly while she reached out and placed a hand on the girl's right arm.

"Well if it's really that terrible Mayu, I'm pretty certain that the chef wouldn't mind making something else for you. But just make sure that you tell him, that you do not like the food before it gets to late Mayu, he does after all need a little time to prepare something else for you" Murrue said, trying to make her words sound just a tiny bit more strict than usual.

Murrue knew that if she didn't make absolutely certain that these words hadn't gotten through to the girl. There was a good chance that Mayu would forget all about it, simply because she was so caught up in building the snowman and playing together with Kira.

And it was only when she saw her daughter nod a few times in understanding, that the somewhat serious look in both of Murrue's eyes disappeared again. "Happy to hear it sweetie, now then any of you want a second cup of hot chocolate?" Murrue asked kindly.

Quickly drinking what was left in his black cup, the only male present up there took a single step over towards the woman. "I wouldn't say no to a second cup of hot chocolate miss Murrue" he said.

Then watched as miss Murrue opened the blue vacuum jug and made a friendly gesture, that was meant to tell him that she was going to pour it for him again.

And knowing that Kira pointed the cup out towards her, so it would be easier for her to fill the black mug with the still steam hot liquid. "Thank you miss Murrue" the boy said once he saw the hot chocolate approaching the edge of the small mug.

Not saying anything back Murrue just smiled as she nodded a single time at him, before she turned and looked over at her daughter who by now had already finished her first cup of hot chocolate, and was now once more busy working on the snowman with a look of deep concentration on her face.

Which was all Murrue needed to tell that the girl wasn't really interested in more hot chocolate and would rather continue working on the snowman for now.

So while happily watching her daughter mess around with the white figure, she placed the vacuum jug down on the deck and leaned back against the railing, where she let out a deep contented sigh, while enjoying the peaceful atmosphere.

Yet as she was doing that Kira was starting to wonder what everybody else was doing.

He hadn't really been the most social person today. Truth be told, the only other person he had actually seen before agreeing to go out here with Mayu was the Archangel's head chef.

And he wasn't really one of those people Kira spend a whole lot of time talking to around the ship. Actually now that he was giving it some thought, he realized that it had actually taken him a few days doing the last war, to remember just what exactly the guy's name was.

"So any ideas about what Cagalli, Miriallia and Dearka are doing today?" Kira asked, while tighten his grip on the slightly warm mug in an attempt to get some warm back in to both of his chilly hands.

Hearing Kira asked that, Murrue narrowed both of her eyes in a thoughtful way. "Hm well I don't know what Miriallia and Dearka are doing. I have yet to see any of them today. Cagalli however is down in the mess hall having a meeting with Amagi and the rest of the Orb soldiers, about what Unato and Yuna are going to do now that the Takemikazuchi has been destroyed, and the rest of the Orb fleet has withdraw back home" Murrue said.

Then wonder briefly, if the two idiotic Seirans where planing on going after the Minerva again. Even after all the terrible things, that had happened doing the last battle at Crete.

There was just so many Orb citizens who had lost their lives while fighting the highly dangerous Zaft war ship.

So Murrue Ramius sincerely hoped that the other Orb politicians, was wise enough to keep on insisting that the remains of the fleet stayed back home in Orb, at least for now, this whole mess with Zaft and the Earth Forces would just be so much easier to deal with, without having to worry about Orb too.

"I wonder what they could be talking about. It has been a while now since we last heard anything from Kazuma, I really hope that the Seirans haven't discovered that he is the one spying for us" Kira said, generally worried about the Murasame pilot. Who was probably busy snooping around somewhere, he most definitely weren't welcome with open arms.

Not really knowing a whole lot about this Kazuma fellow, other than that he was one of their more important contacts back in Orb. And that Kira was obviously a bit concerned about his lack of communication, these last many days.

Murrue reached up and scratched her hair a bit, as she tried to figure out what to say to the teenager next to her.

"Well maybe he hasn't found any new information lately, or perhaps he has to lay low for a while, until it's safe for him to send what he has to us. Even if the Seiran family are almost completely brain dead. There is bound to be some people working for them, that would notice Kazuma if he started messing around in Orb to much" Murrue said.

Before she slowly reached over and gave Kira's arm a small yet reassuring squeeze. Which instantly made the Freedom pilot turn his gaze away from Mayu and over at the woman next to him, where he gave her a small yet grateful smile.

"Yeah I know it's pretty dangerous playing spy like that miss Murrue. If he is discovered, it's very unlikely that we will ever see him alive again, the Seirans does after all seem ready to do just about everything to remain in control of Orb. Especially Yuna's actions in the last couple of battles with the Minerva, has really shown just how far he and his father, is willing to take all of this" Kira said loudly.

Then thought back to some of the more insane things the Seiran family had done. Just the whole matter with ordering the Orb fleet, to fire on the Duel Rouge gundam had really made it clear for all of them just how far over the deep end Yuna had gone since Cagalli ran away from Orb.

And Kira seriously hoped that Kazuma wouldn't end up being capture by Yuna or any of his supports, there was seriously no telling just what they where going to do to the Murasame pilot, to pry just a little information about their location out of him.

So the male Yamato sincerely hoped that Kazuma was doing all right back home in Orb, and that Yuna and his father had yet to realize that Kazuma was function as a spy for them.

Yet as Kira was standing there thinking about that, Murrue gave his arm yet another light squeeze, before she once more began talking to him. "I'm sure that Kazuma knows just how dangerous it is to snoop around after the Seiran's future plans. Which is probably why we haven't heard anything from him recently. I'm pretty certain that he will contact us, once things calms down a bit back in Orb" Murrue said, thinking about how much was going on in the small country right now.

Knowing that Murrue was probably right about everything she had just said, the pilot of the Freedom nodded slowly in agreement, while thinking about everybody he was worried about right now.

There was another one other than his new friends Kazuma, he was worried about, there was his best friend Athrun and there was especially his lovely wife Lacus, yet even while the happy faces of those three people ran slowly through his mind.

Kira stepped away from the railing, and once more start helping the small girl he saw as a little sister roll the third ball of snow.

Still thinking hard about the many people who where important to him.

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Meanwhile else where on the ship.

A certain young couple was down in the hangar playing poker with the chief engineer.

"All right boys I got a full house here. So unless any of you can top that it looks like I win again" Miriallia said, with a teasing grin on her face, which she knew would definitely get on both her boyfriend's and Murdoch's nerves.

Seeing the four aces laying in front of the teen, Murdoch narrowed both of his eyes a bit as he lifted his gaze and looked over at the girl.

"I seriously hate playing cards with you Miriallia, you could run the worlds biggest casino out of business in just a few hours" he said unhappily, frankly not getting how a normal eighteen-year-old, could be so damn good at playing cards.

It just didn't matter what kind of strategy Dearka and him came up with, the brown haired girl would always find some tricky way, to beat both of them. And it didn't really help that Miriallia had the almost perfect poker face.

Not even Dearka was able to tell from her expression if she had a good hand or a bad one. It kinda seemed like her face, was made of solid rock whenever she was playing cards with somebody, there was simply nobody around that could read the girl when they had a poker game going.

And that was actually something that annoyed more then a few of the newer crew members, that had firmly believed that they where quite good at playing poker until they had gone up against Miriallia.

Still smiling at the chief engineer, Miriallia slowly reached out and started gathering together all the cards on the table, getting ready to play yet one more game against the two men.

But even as she began mixing up all the cards in the somewhat unique way her father had taught her a few weeks before she got involved in the last war, The youngish member of the Haw family, had nothing against telling her two opponents just how much they sucked at this game.

"Well Murdoch it's not my fault that you guys a sooo easy to read, maybe if you guys put on a Halloween mask it would be tougher to figure out what kind of cards you are sitting with" the girl teased, then began throwing out the cards to her two cranky opponent.

And it took a least then a second to figure out that Murdoch had a pretty good hand, whenever he had that he would always reach up and rub his chin in a thoughtful way, while if he had a bad hand he would just squeeze his fist together in a displeased manner.

Truth be told the chief engineer was actually one of the most easy people on board the Archangel to read when playing cards. And now that she was actually giving it some thought she couldn't help but wonder how in the world nobody else had notice those minor habit of his, but apparently none of the other mechanics paid all that much attention to each other when the cards was given.

So after watching Murdoch a bit longer, the girl slowly turned her mostly emotionless gaze away from him, and over at her boyfriend who was definitely that much harder to read than the chief engineer.

Ever since the two of them had started dating. Dearka had actually managed to get pretty good at hiding what kind of cards he was sitting with. But that most certainly did not mean that she wasn't able to figure out what kind of hand he had gotten.

He would always have a hint of a smile on his face when he was pleased with the cards he had just gotten. And from what she was able to tell, he was far from happy with the cards he had now, which meant that Murdoch was most likely the biggest threat to her victory this time around.

And with that in mind she once more turned her attention over on Murdoch, who where presently busy studying his few cards. Apparently trying hard to decide what his first move was going to be, seeing as he was the one that was suppose to start this game.

And finally after a few short moments, Murdoch smiled slightly as he made his first move. This time completely and utterly determined to win, over the eighteen-year-old woman, that had humiliate him and the other mechanics so many times in poker.

Yet while Miriallia and Murdoch took this game quite serious.

Dearka however had a much more relaxing attitude to the whole thing. He was simply just enjoying spending time with the one of his good friends, and the woman he loved.

Not that it really hurt seeing Miriallia so combative. If anybody actually asked him, he honestly found her quite attractive, when she was behaving like complete nut case that was so determined to claim victory in no matter what game they where playing.

Truth be told she could actually be a bit of a poor loser whenever she lost a game. Yet Dearka actually liked that too, seeing as he could then try a lot of entertaining ideas to try and make her feel all better.

Especially tickling her had proven quite useful in the past and if that didn't work, there was always the highly preferred option of giving that certain spot on the back of her neck a few light kiss'.

He knew that by doing that, she would be almost like pudding in his hands, which of course was always something that could be quite enjoyable for each of them.

Yet one look at her face made it pretty obvious to him, that she was completely confident in her victory this time around too. And that was definitely in Dearka's eyes somewhat of a disappointment.

Seeing as he had honestly hoped that, either him or Murdoch would be lucky enough to beat her in just one game.

He really wanted to see if he could find another inventive, yet funny way to try and cheer her up again.

To be completely honest he was already planing on asking her to go with him down to the ship's hotspring, where they could spend a little alone time together just the two of them.

Perhaps he could even give her a small massage.

Yet seeing as most of her attention was turned towards playing poker right now, Dearka knew that there was simply noway his lovely girlfriend was going to lose any of these games.

Miriallia was simply too caught up in the whole winning streak to realize, that Dearka wasn't really all that interested in playing poker right now. And that he would most rather just have some fun with her without nobody else around.

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Yet while the young couple and the chief engineer was having a good time.

The atmosphere down in the mess hall was the absolute opposite of the one down in the hangar.

Cagalli was sitting at the end of the large table with Lieutenant Amagi standing just behind her. And all of the other Orb soldiers gather together around the table all of them with their gazes turned towards her.

And even though they had been over pretty much everything they needed to talk about now. Both about the Seiran's plans for Orb and what exactly they could all do to once more turn their small peace loving country back to how it used to be.

But as happy as Cagalli was getting all of this out of the way, she honestly felt like she had one last thing she needed to tell all the brave soldiers in there.

So after slowly moving her eyes over each and every one of them, the young woman stood up from the table, where she immediately gave all of them a deep bow.

"I really want to tell you guys just how much I appreciate everything you are doing for me and Orb. I'm just so happy to know that I'll have all of you guys to help me out, when the time comes for us to try and get Orb back from the Seiran's control" Cagalli said.

Just as a few salty tears left her eyes and slowly made their way down both of her cheeks, only to land on the table a brief second later. Not that the blond haired girl actually noticed that, truth be told she didn't even realize that she was crying right now.

That however was one thing none of the soldiers around her could avoid noticing.

But it was only a moment Amagi reached out and placed a hand on her shoulder that the silence was brought to an end.

"Please cheer-up Lady Cagalli, none of us likes seeing you this sad. If there is one thing I can say for certain, then it definitely is, that we would all much rather see you with a smile on your face, instead of a bunch of tears running down it!" The Lieutenant said loudly, while most of the soldiers nod in agreement.

Hearing Amagi say that she was actually crying, Cagalli instantly reached up and hurried wiped the tears away.

"I'm...I'm...sorry about that guys, but it has been a couple of really stressful weeks for me since I left Orb. And it doesn't really help that I feel like crying half the time while the other half I'm more happy then I have ever been before" Cagalli explained softly.

Then took a glance down at her stomach, honestly blaming the little thing in there for all of her mood swings recently. Yet even though there was no way she could deny that this whole matter didn't bother her quite a bit.

It did not take long before she slowly reached down and gently rubbed her stomach, which was more then enough to make a huge smile appear on her lips.

Seeing her do that most of the soldiers in there could not help but smile, as Ikeya began telling the blond woman his opinion, on her mood swings.

"Well I for one can only speak for myself Lady Cagalli, and I don't blame you one bit for being a little cranky. If I was forced to leave my country because of two power mad fools then I too would be a little pissed off" the man said, already knowing that it wasn't just the entire matter with the Seirans that was making the girl cranky.

The child she was carrying definitely had something to do, with her easily getting pissed off attitude.

Not that any of them blamed her for that, as far as Ikeya knew all of them thought that it was pretty great that the girl was pregnant. And it had actually made most of them feel that much more determined, to help their young leader get Orb back from the Seirans.

Yet as he was thinking hard about that, the person next to him decided to cut in to the conversation. "Ikeya's right Lady Cagalli for the first time ever, those stupid Seirans has really messed up everything, since they came up with that bright idea to join the Earth Forces. So if you ask me, your somewhat sulky mood is more then justified!" The pilot said, while completely ignoring the unhappy glare Ikeya was now giving him.

Looking at him for a bit then around at everybody else, was more then enough to make the blond teen realize, that they all understood why she had been behaving so nutty recently.

And knowing that Cagalli gave them all a huge grateful smile. "Thank you very much guys, I can't even describe how much it means to me, that you are willing to help me out against those Seirans. Even with me behaving like a completely nutty cartoon character on drugs" the blond teen said, making everybody in there laugh loudly at that slightly odd description of her mood swings.

"I guess that's one way of saying it Lady Cagalli, but I don't really think your behavior is that bad. When my wife was pregnant with our first child, she almost made me sleep outside a few times" another one of the pilots explained while thinking about his wife and kids back home.

He did however not get long to do that before Ikeya interrupted his thoughts.

"Who the hell could blame her for that. She was properly drunk when she agreed to marry you" the man said, which of course resulted in that every person currently present again started laughing loudly.

Even Cagalli couldn't keep her laughter in, as she waited to see what the man's reaction was going to be to that little comment.

And it took less then a second, before the slightly offended man yell out for all of them to shut up. And that his wife certainly hadn't been drunk when he had proposed to her.

Unfortunately it was kinda hard for anybody there to take his yelling serious. Seeing as he himself had a large smirk on his face. It was after all completely normal that soldiers joked around like this.

Especially Ikeya enjoyed making jokes about his marriage, seeing as the two of them where childhood friends and actually brother-in-laws. And that of course meant that he was at this moment in time happily married to Ikeya's older sister.

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Yet while the atmosphere on the Archangel was bright and mostly cheerful, the same couldn't really be said about the one on the Bonaparte.

Neo Roanoke slowly enter the large land battleship's hangar, follow shortly by Sting Oakley and Stella Loussier.

Each one of the Extendeds dressed in their space suits, yet while Sting looked highly satisfied and pleased with what they where about to do. Stella had a much more nervous expression on her face, as she fought down the temptation that want to take a hold on Neo's hand, for some reason she just couldn't help but be scared right now.

She just felt so unsafe down there, like just one wrong move could make the entire hangar collapse over her, which was definitely not a feeling she liked. And it didn't really help that there was so dark down there, she really wished that they would turn on some light.

And after taking one more nervous look around the hangar she moved a little closer to Neo. Sincerely hoping that just being near the man would somehow help keep her safe from danger.

Yet it was only when he reached up and softly rubbed her short blond hair that she was able to calm down at least a bit.

"Please do not worry Stella, your assignment isn't really that dangerous. Sting over there will handle every opponent that gets in our way. You will be perfectly safe in the Chaos" Neo said, while looking directly in to the girl's two nervous eyes.

Looking right back at the man, Stella blinked a few times as she turned her head a bit to the side. "So Stella wouldn't be in danger?" She asked softly, sounding more then a bit like a small child, that shouldn't be allowed inside a mobile suit under any circumstance, no matter what size or form it had.

Still stroking her hair, Neo smiled gently at her. "No I don't believe it will be necessary for you or anybody else to interfere in this battle. Sting and the Destroy should be more then powerful enough to beat everything Zaft can throw at them, the only thing you need to do Stella is to make certain that not even one Zaft soldier survive this. So you just keep an eye out for leftovers" Neo said in the most soothing tone he could muster.

Not totally certain what to say back to the man's comforting words, Stella just nodded slowly in understanding while taking a glance over at the machine that she was going to be piloting.

She did however not get long to watch the smallest of the two gundams down there, before Sting's voice pull her attention away from her new mobile suit and over at him, where she immediately noticed the somewhat cocky grin that was covering his face.

"If it's all right with you guys I would like to get going soon, I'm quite anxious to see what this baby can do!" The green haired teenager said loudly, not once taking his eyes away from the Destroy.

It just looked so damn powerful and he was really looking forward to test out the Destroy's weapons, in a city or two. It definitely was going to be entertaining to see just how much destruction he could make with this thing.

Yet while he was so caught up in looking the Destroy over, he of course had no way of knowing that Neo was glaring quite hard at him right now, especially because the blond man was still wearing his mask.

And just one look at the wicked expression Sting had on his face, was more than enough to make Neo feel like dumping his breakfast somewhere. He seriously wished that he could call this whole thing off.

Unfortunately it really did seem impossible to stop any of this from happening, and knowing that the mask man let out a tired sigh as he began making his way over to his Windam.

"Yeah you are right lets get this show on the road, just be careful that you don't hit anything on your way out of the hangar Sting" Neo said, then took one last glance over at Stella that was still looking quite nervous about this whole ordeal.

Yet as luck would have it, there was nothing he could do about it now.

Which meant that it did not take long before the Destroy, the Chaos gundam and a small squadron of Windams left the Bonaparte. And without wasting anytime they all started making their way towards whatever German city they where currently closed too.

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At the same time back on the Archangel.

Dalida and Arnold was up on the bridge.

Enjoying a cup of coffee while watching the news on the main monitor.

Not that the man on the screen said much that was overly interesting, right now he was talking loudly about a new shopping mall that was supposed to open in Berlin in just a couple of days.

And listening to the man talk about that was honestly incredibly boring, which frankly made both of the men wonder, just when exactly he was planing on telling them something they actually wanted to know.

But before any of them could get their mouth open, and start complaining about the tiresome program they where currently watching. They suddenly heard a small alarming sound from one of the control panel.

Which was all they needed to tell that they had just received a message from somebody.

And not really overly depressed about having something else to do other then listening to the boring news reader, Dalida turned around in his seat and start working on the controls now in front of him.

And it took less than a second before he let out a deeply shocked gasp. "What the hell is this?!" Dalida asked loudly, while quickly scanning over the deeply terrifying data they had just received from some of the other Terminal operatives.

Immediately taking notice of the highly shock look his friend now had on his face. The dark blue haired man could of course not help but wonder, what all of this was about.

As far as he could remember, he had never seen Dalida make that kind of expression before. "What's the matter Dalida? You look like you have just seen a ghost or the devil himself" Arnold said concerned.

Hearing his friend say that instantly snapped Dalida back to reality, as he turned and looked down at Arnold.

"It's not far from it actually, here take a look at this!" Dalida said, as he made the images of a completely annihilate city, and what had apparently been the cost of all the destruction appear on the main monitor.

Seeing such a gruesome sight was all that was needed to make Arnold gasp loudly too. "What is that thing?" He asked, referring to the enormous monstrosity they could see slowly leaving the sad remains of the city.

Followed by a few mobile suits, that appeared to be Earth Forces Windams. Yet thanks to all of the smoke on the screen, it was kinda hard to tell just what exactly they where.

And it was only after watching the scenario a bit longer that Dalida was finally able to get over his shock at seeing so much death and destruction, which meant that it took less then second before he got a deeply determined look in both of his eyes.

"I have no idea about what that thing is Arnold! But one thing is certain, we have to show the Captain and everybody else that this is going on right now. So lets go over to level two battle station, that is bound to get everybody up here in a hurry!" The glasses wearing man said.

Just as he activated the alarm and began talking loudly out over the speakers, telling the entire crew to get to their station and prepare for combat, not that he actually knew for sure, if they where going after that monstrosity.

This frankly just seemed like the best way to get the Captain and Kira up there, as quickly as possible.

To be continued.


	52. Chapter 52

Chapter 52

The two Ramius' and the male Yamato was still outside on the Archangel's deck messing around with all the snow, when the alarms started ringing loudly out through the entire space ship.

Hearing that Kira immediately got back up on his feet and looked up at the slightly grey sky, to see if there was any enemy mobile suits coming towards them. Yet as far as he could tell, there was nothing anywhere near the Archangel that could be consider a threat.

That however did not prevent him from trying to find the sources for the alarm.

If there really was something hostile approaching this place, he most definitely needed to get down to the Freedom in a hurry, so he could help Dearka take care of their unwelcome visitors.

Yet the only thing flying around over the Archangel was a small white and black bird, that did not seem to care about all the noise coming from the space ship. And it was pretty obvious by the way it kept circling around up there, that it was far more interesting in trying to find something to eat.

So after watching the tiny creature a bit longer, Kira turned his gaze over at the oldest one of the two Ramius', just as she opened her mouth and began talking loudly about the course for the alarm.

"What in God's name is going on now?!" Murrue asked, seriously worried that they where going to be attacked without having anytime to prepare for it. It was after all pretty easy to tell that attacking them right now wouldn't really be an overly risky move.

Fortunately it didn't really seem like an incoming attack, was the course for the loud noise around them. "Lets get inside and up to the bridge!" Murrue said in a bossy tone.

Then reached down and took a hold on her daughter's left hand, just to make absolutely sure that her small troublemaker got inside the white space ship with her and Kira. It definitely wasn't safe for Mayu to continue working on the snowman, when they had no idea about what was happening.

And knowing that it would not do them any good to keep on standing around out there, Murrue pull her daughter along with her over to the door. While Kira hurried followed them as they enter the ship.

Once inside they instantly heard Dalida's voice saying something about they having an emergency on their hands, and that it was necessary that everybody got to their assigned post immediately.

But even though the glasses wearing man's small speech, did sound quite serious. It honestly didn't really tell them anything, about what was going on. The only thing they now knew for sure, was that it had been Dalida who had started this whole racket.

And as the three of them quickly past the ship's Doctor, they didn't get much further before they meet up Miriallia and Dearka. And without saying even a single word to each other, the five of them continued the rest of the way to the Archangel's bridge.

Once there, Murrue Ramius hurried reached out and opened the door and stepped inside, where the first thing she saw was Dalida and Arnold busy working on their controls.

"What's going on you guys? You pretty much gave half of us a heart attack when you turned on the alarms!" She said loudly, while waiting impatiently to hear what they had to say about all of this.

She was actually so caught up in looking at the two of them and waiting for a response, that she didn't even noticed it when Mayu slowly pull her hand out of her tight grasp, and moved over next to Miriallia, where she immediately pull off the thick red winter coat and threw it on the floor.

Then hurried dropped down beside it and looked up at her mother. Also waiting to hear what this was about, seriously hoping that this was really important. She was after all far from happy about stopping her work on the snowman.

Especially seeing as her and Kira had been nearly done with it. Actually the only thing they needed to do now, was to find a few things to put on their white statue.

Yet as she was sitting there on the floor, Dalida hastily turned in his seat and looked over at the Captain. "Well you see Ma'am! Not long ago, we received these video footages from the Terminal" he said.

Then swiftly made the images of the completely annihilate city. And the monster which had been responsible for all of this pointless destruction appear up on the main monitor.

And just the shocking sight of the many destroyed buildings, and the realization that it had not been long since that a ton of innocent people, had died in this extremely merciless assault, was unsurprisingly more then enough to make each and ever one of them gasp loudly in disbelief.

And it took a few long highly tense seconds, before somebody manage to get a few words out. "Holy shit! What kind of sick bastard would actually attack a city like that, when it's still full of civilians?" Dearka asked, while slowly moving his gazes away from the few burning buildings that was still standing upraised, and over at the very thing, that had done all of this.

But even as each and every one of them where trying to come up with a response to that question, none of them really knew what to say at the moment. This whole thing just seemed so far out and unreal as it could possibly be.

So the deep almost unbearable silences continued for an unknown number of seconds. Until Kira finally took a single step forward where he instantly started talking in a low yet highly determined voice.

"I have no idea about what that thing is, but I'm going to stop it before it can do anything else like this. So if it's all right with you, miss Murrue, could we hurry after that thing? Before it can reach it's next target?" Kira asked, seriously not wanting to see another city being destroyed like this. If there was something he could do to stop it.

Hearing just how utterly pissed off Kira sounded right now, was enough to make Murrue look away from the screen, and over at the brown haired young man, where his expression immediately told her, that there was simply noway she could talk him out of going after that machine.

Not that she was actually going to do that, she too wanted to take that monster down, before it could do anymore harm. And knowing that she turned her somewhat angry gaze, over at Dalida where she immediately asked him if he knew anything about where that damn thing was heading.

Taking a quick look at the data, to try and figure out the answer to the captain's question. It only took a small moment or two, before they all saw Dalida give his low lips an extremely hard bite. "Well, according to this Captain, it's currently heading straight towards Berlin!" The man explained.

Not at all pleased with what Dalida had just told them, Murrue got a deeply displeased look in both of her eyes. They where after all quite far away from the German capital, so it would properly take them some time to get there.

"Ok, that means that we got a lot of distance to cover. So get us in the air immediately, Arnold and head full speed towards Berlin. And you Dalida make sure that all of the weapons are loaded. We do not want to face that monstrosity unprepared now" the woman order loudly, then hurried unzip her fluffy winter coat and placed it on the floor beside Mayu's.

After that she dropped down in to her seat and yell out a few more orders, which the two men and Miriallia instantly started working on.

Yet while they where doing that, the door to the bridge suddenly flew open and in stepped Cagalli with a somewhat pale look on her face. "I'm sorry about the delay guys. But when I was done talking with Amagi and the rest of the Orb soldiers, I had a small meeting elsewhere, I really needed to deal with" she explained, seriously hoping that they wouldn't ask her what she had been doing.

She really didn't feel like telling anybody, that she had been busy throwing-up when the alarm had sounded. And even though the blond woman had done everything she could to get up there in a hurry, she just hadn't been able to bring her unwanted appointment with the toilet to an end before now.

And even though they could all easily guess what she had been doing before getting up there, they all knew that it was a dumb idea to comment on it.

The blond woman had after all made it completely obvious to all of them, that throwing-up was not one of those things she enjoyed overly much, as a matter of fact, it piss her more than a little bit, every single time it was necessary for her to do that.

But still not wanting to hurt her feelings by not saying anything at all. Kira moved over and placed both of his hands on his sister's shoulders, then looked directly in to her eyes.

"So are you feeling all right now, sis?" He asked in a worried tone.

Which made Cagalli narrow both of her eyes a bit as she tried to decide if she should answer this question nicely or do the complete opposite. But in the end, a part of her realized that Kira was only asking her this because he was concerned about her and the baby's health.

And with those thoughts in mind she came to the realization that it was probably best to be nice to her brother right now. Besides it was not like this would be her last opportunity to say something nasty to him.

"I'm all right Kira, but I am really starting to get tired of all this damn morning sickness. I'm really looking forward to when that is over" she said, wondering just how much longer it would take before she would stop feeling nauseous half the time she was awake.

Feeling slightly sorry for her, Kira tried to think of something he could do to help her out.

It was not like he needed to get down to the Freedom right this instant, so if there was anything he could do for her right now, then that would be a good way to pass the time, while they where heading for Berlin.

"Why don't I go get you some water, sis? You do seem quite thirsty right now" Kira kindly said.

Thinking briefly about what her brother had just offer to do for her. It only took Cagalli a short moment to decide that it didn't really hurt that she bossed Kira around a bit right now.

She did after all still firmly believe, that every pregnant woman in this world should have a man close by to yell at and boss around. And even though she would honestly prefer to have Athrun as her personal servant.

Kira wasn't really the worse replacement she could get, he wasn't nearly as annoying as some of the other men on board the Archangel, she thought then took a brief glance over at Dearka, who at this very moment was standing only a few steps away from Miriallia, obviously watching the brown haired woman work so hard on the controls in front of her.

And as cute a couple as Miriallia and Dearka made, Cagalli truly was happy that he was not the one, function as her stand-in servant right now. It might not be nearly as bad as Mu La Flaga, but the former Buster pilot did have the highly annoying ability to get under her skin quite easily. Which was honestly not something she felt like dealing with right now.

So after looking at the blond simpleton a bit longer, she once more turned her attention back towards her brother. "Well if you insist on getting something to drink for me Kira, then I wouldn't say no, just make sure that the water is ice cold, I do not want it if it's lukewarm" she said, using a voice that made it completely obvious to all of them, that she wouldn't hesitate even a second, sending him down after a new glass of water, should she not be fully satisfied with the first one.

Raising an eyebrow at that, Kira felt slightly tempt to saying something about feeling sorry for what Athrun had to deal with once he returned back to them.

But fortunately his comment sense was able to prevent him from saying anything like that. Instead he just gave her a deep bow.

"Yes Ma'am I'll go get your ice water immediately. But is there anything else I can do for you, wash your mobile suit perhaps?" He asked, sounding exactly like that kind of waiter, most people would just hate to meet, when they where out having a nice dinner.

Just hearing how utterly sarcastic he sounded right now, was more then enough to make an angry gleam appear in each of Cagalli's eyes.

"Would you just hurry up and go get me my water you idiot! Before I kick you out of here!" She yelled.

Then hurried stormed over to the empty seat, which was locate next to Arnold's chair. Yet before sitting down, she made absolutely sure to send Kira one last cranky glare, which was meant to tell him to watch his mouth.

Yet the only thing he did, when she gave him that highly sulky look, was smile kindly at her as he turned around and slowly left the bridge. "I'll be back with your water as quickly as I can, sis" he called back to her, just as the thick metal door flew shut behind him.

"Man sometimes he can just be soooo annooooyyyiiiiing!" She mumbled loudly, before turning her grumpy gaze towards the control panel located directly in front of her, trying her best to see if there was anything she could do to help out up there.

But as she was busy typing away on the keyboard. She did not notice the slightly romantic display between Miriallia and Dearka.

"I'll see you once I get back Mir, so please don't worry about me" Dearka whispered softly in to her ear, then lean down and gave her left cheek a light kiss. Yet just as he was about to leave the room too.

Miriallia quickly grabbed on to his arm, which again made him look back at her where she gave him a small smile, before she used his arm to pull him just a bit closer to her.

And when he was only a few centimeters away from her, she slowly leaned in and gave his cheek a kiss back, then whispered into his ear, that she would be waiting for him to return.

Which was of course all that was needed to make him leave the bridge with a huge smile covering his entire face.

000000

Once out in the halls Dearka immediately took a look around after his fellow pilot, but there was no sign of him. Yet knowing that Kira was going for some water to his sister, Dearka had a pretty good guess on where exactly the Freedom pilot was heading.

So without wasting anymore time hanging around out there, the blond man hurried took off in the direction of the mess hall.

He seriously want to talk with Kira, before they reached Berlin. So the two of them could at least try and come up with some kind of strategy, to take down that ugly monstrosity.

If there was one thing Dearka realized about himself, then it was that he might not be the sharpest tool in the shed. But he really did think that it was absolutely insane to go against such a deadly machine, without at least having some idea about how to fight it.

It was not like they could just throw all of their mobile suits at it, and hope for the best.

So while still trying his very best to come up with a useable strategy, for facing that insanely huge machine. The blond mobile suit pilot increased his speed and started walking that much faster through the Archangel's halls.

Seriously hoping that he could catch up with Kira before he fellow pilot and friend could reach the mess hall.

Fortunately it did not take long before he spotted Kira walking a few steps ahead of him in a slow pace. Which made it pretty obvious that he wasn't in a big hurry to bring Cagalli the water he had promised her. And also that he had a great deal of things on his mind right now, most likely about what was happening near the German capital right at this very moment.

And knowing just how much this whole matter with Berlin being attacked was probably bothering the Freedom pilot, Dearka hurried call out after him. "Yo Kira, wait a sec, I really need to talk with you" he yelled loudly, as he hurried ran the last couple of steps over to his friend.

Where he immediately took a long breath, before asking the one question he had on his mind. "Kira do you have any ideas about just how exactly we are suppose to beat that thing?" He asked, doing next to nothing to hide that he was kinda low on suggestions about how to handle this situation. It wasn't like he had actually fought something that big before.

Not saying even a single word at first, Kira just stood there for an large number of seconds, just looking at his second best friend. Until he finally turned his thoughtful gaze downwards towards the floor.

"I really do wish I could tell you that I had some kind of a brilliant plan to handle this, Dearka. But it is kinda hard to come up with a strategy when we don't even know one thing about that monster and what kind of weapons it has" Kira said.

Then told the other pilot, that he actually thought that thing looked like some kind of floating fortress.

Thinking briefly about those words, Dearka slowly moved his hand up and rubbed his chin in a thoughtful way.

"Guess you are right, Kira. It really does look like some kind of badass fortress. But even knowing that, we still have no idea about what we are up against. Actually the only thing we know for sure, is that it had an amazingly high destructive capability" Dearka nervously said.

While thinking about what had been left of the first town, the floating fortress had gone through.

Of course knowing that his friend was right about that, Kira slowly reached up and ran both of his hands through, his messy brown hair. "Yeah we definitely shouldn't underestimate that thing, until we have a chance to try and figure out it's weakness" the pilot of the Freedom gundam said, sincerely hoping that the monstrosity would at least have a few of those, and that it wasn't completely indestructible.

Honestly not what Dearka had wanted to hear, he let out a long displeased sigh.

"Ahhh damn, that's not really much of a plan, Kira. I was kinda hoping that we could have thought up a totally unbeatable strategy, which would have enabled us to take down that thing in five minutes or less" the blond man said. Then slowly rubbed away the few drops of sweat that was presently making their way down his forehead.

Not once taking his eyes away from his second best friend, Kira had no trouble understanding at all what Dearka meant by that. Truth be told he too would have liked to have some kind of battle plan to fight the floating fortress.

But that was pretty much impossible, without anymore information about the monster. "Yeah tell me about it, Dearka. I too ain't really overly excited about the idea of just rushing in there and start fighting that thing head-on" he stated in a unhappy voice.

Then turned around and began walking the rest of the way to the mess hall.

He was pretty certain that his cranky sister was starting to run very low on patient waiting for him to return with her water. So it was probably best that he got moving before she actually started yelling at him over the speakers.

Seeing him go like that, Dearka hurried up beside him. "Well, ain't this just going to be fun" he grumbled displeased.

Just as Kira nodded slowly in agreement.

000000

Meanwhile only a few dozen kilometers away from Berlin.

None of the Earth Forces soldiers present there knew just what kind of powerful opponents, that was currently making their way towards them at this very moment in time.

Instead most of their attention was turned towards the about fifty different type of Zaft mobile suits, which was hastily approaching their position obviously hoping that they could somehow prevent them from entering the enormous city.

"Hah! Can't those pathetic losers find something else to throw at us, those older models are completely worthless!" Sting laughed loudly, then immediately used a bunch of the Destroy's beam weapons to shoot down eight DINNs that was trying to attack him from above. Not that they had much luck with that, before he destroyed all of them, like they weren't even worth the metal they had been made of.

After that he moved forward a bit and fired of yet another round of beams taking out ten BuCUEs that had been attacking him from the ground. And when he saw all of the four legged mobile suits blow up, he instantly let out a highly wicked laugh.

"Die you annoying bugs, DIE!" He shouted happily, while opening fire on a large squadron of incoming GINNs, which was hastily approaching him by Guul. But even though he did manage to take out a sizeable portion of them in just one go.

The rest still succeeded in getting off a minor bunch of missiles.

Yet thanks to the highly useful beam shield, the enormous war machine did not get any kind of damage, from the minor explosions the missiles made when hammered against the Destroy's defense.

Actually the only thing the warheads did was send a light shiver through the Destroy, which was more then enough to make a huge pissed off frown appear on Sting's forehead, as he glared a second or two after the GINNs.

And when it looked like they where about to attack him again, he instantly shoot off a huge amount of missiles back after the GINNs. Truly enjoying the sight of them trying to evade the many warheads, not that any of them actually succeed in doing that.

And once the last of them had blown up in a smaller explosion.

The green haired man let out another sickening laugh as he continued slowly moving the Destroy forward.

Not having any trouble at all dealing with the few remaining Zaft mobile suits, that was still trying to prevent him and the rest of the Earth Forces from taking their little trip through Berlin.

Yet while Sting was having the time of his life destroying whatever Zaft machine that got close to him. Neo was watching his every move with a deeply ashamed look in both of his eyes, it did not matter how much he tried rationale what was going on around him made a big part of him feel like his conscience was ready to jump out of his body and start yelling at him.

And it did not really help, that those now highly familiar faces was presently flying full speed through his head right now. It was actually so bad that he was tempted to take off his helmet, so he could at least try and get rid of this extremely painful headache.

But as he sat there trying so hard to ignore the many disappointed looks he was receiving right now. He was instantly pulled out of his conflicting thoughts, by a minor explosion that happened only a few dozen feet away from him.

And the sight of the destroyed DINN falling straight towards the ground not that far away from him, made it completely clear to the mask man that he had been more then a little close, to have been shot down by friendly fire.

"Sting would you PLEASE watch where you aim all of those damn weapons! I don't know about the rest of us out here. But I would like very much to get out of this battle alive and in one piece!" Neo yelled angrily to the violent teenager.

Just as another highly deadly attack left the Destroy, taking out a great number Zaft BuCUEs and GAZuOOTs. "Yeah yeah Neo, it's not like I was trying to shot you down on purpose. I just saw an enemy machine and shot it down, precisely like I'm doing with the rest of these so called pieces of useless trash!" He shouted proudly as another round of missiles left the Destroy, heading for three DINNs that was actually trying to get away from the battle.

And once the three Coordinators had joined up with their pitiful friends in hell. Sting continued onward towards Berlin, not caring one bit about the many mobile suits he had destroyed, or the fact that he had almost kill one of his comrades in arms.

Frankly the only thing the green haired man cared about right now was getting to Berlin as quickly as possible, even if that meant he had to disobey Neo's orders.

He simply weren't satisfied with all the destruction he had cost or all the lives he had taken. He just needed to find somebody else to show that it was a very bad idea to mess with him.

And what better place to do that, then the capital of a country.

So while smirking like a absolute maniac over what he was about to do. He of course didn't realize, that Neo was glaring more then a little hatefully down at the back of the Destroy, as it slowly made it's way to the grand city which could now clearly be seen in the far distance.

"Damn that brat, I just knew that it was a bad move on my part putting that trigger-happy idiot in the Destroy" the blond man grumbled to himself. Even though he knew that the only alternative he had for a pilot to the Destroy had been Stella.

And he was pretty certain that there was just noway the girl would be able to handle the large enormous of stress, she would most likely get from piloting the Destroy in the broken down condition she was in.

He wasn't even totally sure that it had been wise putting her in the Chaos. And if he should suddenly get the opportunity. He would more then gladly send the teenager girl back to the Bonaparte.

And just the thought about how absolutely depressed she had been since the Impulse pilot had returned her to them. Made the mask man take a short glance over at the green mobile suit.

Sincerely wondering just how the blond girl was handling everything that was happening around her right now. Up until now, she hadn't said even one word since they left the Bonaparte, it was kinda like she had actually fallen asleep over there in the gundam.

Yet just as he was about to ask her if she was doing all right over there, the gundam suddenly shot forward full speed, and took off in the same direction Sting and the Destroy was currently heading in.

Seeing that and knowing where the two teens was going. Neo gave his lower lips a hard bite, then he tighten his grip on the controls, as he took off after the kids and the rest of the Windams.

Still cursing loudly inside his mind about the gruesome disaster they where about to unleash on Berlin.

000000

It was about ten minutes after the first wavy of Zaft mobile suits had been send out to intercept the huge monstrosity that had been approaching the capital.

Unfortunately they apparently didn't have much luck with that. Seeing that it hadn't been long since the monster had crossed the city border.

And was now ruthlessly destroying everything in it's path, buildings, mobile suits, and even the poor people down on the street that was trying so hard to escape from the machine.

"Damn those Earth Forces bastards, I just can't believe that they brought something like that here!" A lonely Zaft soldier coursed. While taking a glance away from the unconscious child in his arms and up at the monster that was busy reducing one of the city's main streets to nothing more than a pile of rubble.

He did however not get long to watch the damn piece crap, before he almost tripped over a few big rocks which had most likely fallen of some of the buildings around him.

And after coursing loudly about that too.

He swiftly regained his balance and once more turned his attention back towards where he was going. Sincerely hoping that he could find someplace, where he could get a few moments, to get some much needed air back down into his lungs.

The young Zaft soldier might be in excellent shape, but carrying this kid and all of his equipment seriously was taking the toll on him right now. And he would honestly give his left arm away for a small break to get rid of his equipment.

It wasn't like a normal machine rifle or anything else he was dragging along with him would do much against that monster. And if he could somehow get the necessary time, to get rid of all of this damn junk on his back. He would at least be able to run that much faster.

"Damn it! DAMN IT! I should have done what my mother said, and been a dentist instead!" He complained loudly. Even though he honestly didn't regret his decision to become a Zaft soldier. He just wished he knew where the rest of his squadron where. And that high command could throw something a tiny bit more powerful at that damn thing.

But the black haired man kept on running down the deadly obstacle course the street had been turned into.

He just couldn't help wonder what the heck the people in charge was doing right about now. He just hoped that they where doing everything possible to come up with an idea to stop that damn thing.

Yet as those highly serious thoughts was rummaging hastily through his mind. He and the boy was suddenly thrown full speed forward, by an enormous explosion that happened only a few feet behind him.

And immediately realizing that it simply wouldn't do them any good trying to resist gravity. He swiftly turned sideways so the backpack would take the brunt of the fall.

But as he slammed full force into the unsteady ground, he could of course not keep the words of pain in.

Hitting the thick asphalt so unbelievably hard, truly was the most painful thing he had ever experienced, in his young life. And he practically had to force himself not to past out right then and there.

Yet as every last fibre of his being was screaming at him to get up and get moving. His body functions just wouldn't listen to him, it was almost like both of his legs weight over a ton each.

"Get up you lazy bastard, you can't lay here the rest of the day!" He growled softly to himself, then started working on getting the damn backpack off. There was just noway he could keep going with that stupid thing on.

But as much as he tried to do this small task in a hurry. It took almost five whole minutes to get the heavy piece of crap off. Mostly thanks to the large amount of pain that was shooting through just about every single part of his body.

It was actually so bad that he kinda felt like even his torn up clothes where hurting right now. "Damn it, I'm seriously going to ask for a big raise and a big shiny medal once this is over!" He said out through the pain.

Just as he dropped the annoying backpack and the machine rifle, on the ground behind him. Not that he cared one bit about that, frankly the only thing on his mind as he was stood there, looking very much like a small gust of wind, could knock him over, was getting himself and the kid out of there as quickly as humanly possible.

"Ahh damn it kid, you better name one of your children after me!" The beaten up man said.

Then slowly kneel down and carefully picked up the small kid. Doing his best to ignore all the pain, as he once more stood up straight and began slowly limping away from the battlefield with the child in his arms.

He did however not get very far, before he noticed that his left leg was feeling somewhat soaked and that it hurt slightly more then anything else on his body. If that was even possible.

And after shifting his weight around a bit he saw a great deal of blood was now slowly running down his leg. "Well ain't that just great! This whole thing just keeps on getting better and better"

Then kept on limping slowly down the street, sincerely hoping that he could increase the distance between them and the monster. Before it could course another explosion like the last one.

To be continued.


End file.
